Bulgaria's BG Agro Prices IPO at 0.85-1.17 Euro/Share, To Float up to 20% of Capital

Bulgarian agriculture group BG Agro said on Monday it has priced an upcoming initial public offering (IPO) of up to 20% of its capital in the indicative range of 1.67 levs to 2.28 levs ($1.28-$1.74/0.85 euro-1.17 euro) per share.

"The proceeds from the share sale will be invested in a wind farm project worth 140-150 million levs, as well as in the purchase of farmland," local news daily Dnevnik (www.dnevnik.bg) quoted the company's owner, Nenko Nenkov, as telling a news conference.

The company will offer for subscription up to 8,071,488 of its shares and will consider the IPO successful if at least 4,035,744 shares are scooped up, it said in a statement.

The company will initially offer some 6.0 million shares, or 15% of its share capital, and could later add a further 2.0 million to the offering, depending on investor interest.

The IPO will take place between November 23 and 26. The results will be announced on November 27.

The company had initially planned to go public almost two years ago but the IPO was shelved due to the turmoil on international and domestic financial markets.

"BG Agro will initially have a free float of 13.4% and, at a later stage, it is expected to reach 25-30%," Dnevnik quoted Spas Vidarkinski, head of financial markets at UniCredit Bulbank, the IPO's manager, as telling the same news conference.

According to Vidarkinski, 60% of the offering will be picked up by institutional investors with a long-term investment horizon.

BG Agro (www.bgagro.bg) is active in farming, distribution of plant protection chemicals and fertilisers, trading, storage and transportation of grain and oilseed.

BG Agro expects to boost its net profit to 6.7 million levs this year from 4.9 million in 2008. Sales are forecast to increase by 4.7 million levs on the year to 84.7 million levs in 2009.

(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)

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