Electrica officially announces its intention to float on the stock exchanges in Bucharest and London

Electrica announced today its intention to launch an Initial Public Offering of new ordinary shares in the share capital and global depositary receipts (GDRs) to be listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (the shares) and on the London Stock Exchange (the GDRs), respectively, shows a press release.  Based on the notification sent to the LSE, the offering comprises nearly 177,2 million of new shares, which represents 105 percent of the total number of existing shares of the company: “The Offering comprises an offering of 177,188,744 new shares, representing 105 percent of the total number of existing shares of the Company, in the form of shares (the "Offer Shares") and GDRs representing such securities, with one GDR representing an interest in four Offer Shares”.

Subscription is foreseen to be initiated in mid-June, while the effective listing of Electrica should start at the end of the same month, given the data provided by the General Directorate for Privatization and Management of Stakes in Energy held by the State.

Electrica intends to apply for the admission of the new shares to trading on the Regulated Spot Market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange and for admission of the GDRs to listing on the Official List of the United Kingdom Listing Authority and to trading on the London Stock Exchange. The company will file the prospectus with the Romanian Financial Supervision Authority for approval, before initiating the IPO.

“The Department of Energy plans the Electrica’s listing to be the biggest ever on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. At the same time, we are aware that some investors express a moderate optimism as they take into consideration the external conjuncture, the rating of the country and the possible development of the geopolitical situation in the region. We assure all of them that Electrica is a very stable company, solid, with regulated and predictable revenue which will represent an investment on medium and long term”, said Razvan Nicolescu, Minister Delegate for Energy, according to the mentioned press release.

Electrica is the leading distributor and supplier of electricity in Romania. The group's core business segments are the supply and distribution of electricity, in the first area operating through Electrica Distributie Muntenia Nord S.A., Electrica Distributie Transilvania Sud S.A., Electrica Distributie Transilvania Nord S.A. and the maintenance services company Electrica Serv. The supply segment operates through Electrica Furnizare and supplies electricity to consumers both on the regulated electricity market (in the regions where the distribution subsidiaries of the group operate) and on the competitive electricity market (throughout Romania).

The group's electricity distribution business is the largest in the domestic market both in terms of volume of electricity distributed to users and number of users.  According to ANRE, the National Energy Regulatory Authority, in 2013 the Electrica’s distribution business accounted for 39 percent of the electricity distributed in Romania – some 16 TWh of electric power which was distributed to about 3.6 million users. The supply operations included a similar number of users (around 3.56 million) and 9.7 TWh which represents 22.1 percent of the electric power supplied in the country.

Last year, Electrica posted consolidated revenues of approximately 5.2 billion lei (over 1.15 billion euro), while EBITDA amounted to 749 million lei (some 167 million euro).