“The IPO will be announced next Friday in principle, and subscription will begin on Monday, September 9,” Gabriel Dumitrescu, the official in charge of the privatization of energy companies who reports to Energy Minister Constantin Nita, told ZF.
There have been doubts about Nuclearelectrica’s floatation after the government approved the stock sale price in June, and then a lawsuit with the unions caused the IPO to be postponed.
The main risk factor now is the outbreak of a war in Syria, which could cause instability on international markets and draw the attention of foreign investors to something else.
The government wants to sell 10% in the nuclear power producer and get 284 million lei (EUR64 million) to 380 million lei (EUR86 million) for it. The money will go to the company for a capital increase instead of the state budget.
Investors and brokers are eagerly awaiting this IPO, which should put one of the most valuable state-run companies on the stock market, contributing up to one billion euros in capitalization to the market and boosting daily traded volume by several hundred thousand euros.
The Bucharest Stock Exchange has been badly hurt by the lack of IPOs and decline in transactions in the last five years. Many brokerage firms closed and the pension funds that manage retirement accounts for 5.9 million Romanians are complaining they have run out of options to invest.
The success of the offering is very much up to the interest foreign investment funds will show, since the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan made some of them reluctant to invest in nuclear power.
Nuclearelectrica’s IPO is a test for the government, which plans to sell 15% in Romgaz on the stock market this fall and seeks to get EUR600 million for it. The government also vowed to list Hidroelectrica and Electrica, which will probably happen next year.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)