Bulgaria Launches EVN Unit Sales on Bourse

EVN unit in Bulgaria includes two companies in charge of sales and grid operation. Photo by BGNES

The trade with shares from the Bulgarian government's 33% minority stake in the local unit of Austria's EVN AG started early on December 21.

The offering will be open for a month.

Bulgaria seeks to rake in at least BGN 78.4 M from the sale of the government's 33% minority stake in the local unit of Austria's EVN AG, the local stock exchange said.

Bulgaria's financial regulator greenlighted at the beginning of December the listing of the government's 33% minority stake in the two power distribution companies controlled by Austria's EVN.

Bulgaria offers 62 106 shares in Electrosnabdiavane and 51 612 shares in Electrorazpredelenie at a minimum price per share of BGN 120.31 and BGN 1,373.92 respectively.

Bulbrokers, a local financial and investment company, was picked in the middle of June to broker Bulgaria's 33% stake sale in Austria's EVN AG unit.

"We hope that investors will find the companies attractive despite the uncertainly and limited liquidity on the market," said Radoslav Rachev from Bulbrokers.

Experts have repeatedly called on the government to launch high-quality initial public offerings to bring back to life the capital market, dented by low liquidity and lack of quality stock, as well as to boost revenues. That's why the sale of the minority stakes in the electricity distributors on the stock exchange was a must-do task for 2011.

In 2004, the Balkan country sold 67% in its three power distributors to Germany's E.ON, Austria's EVN and Czech CEZ.

E.ON serves households in North-Eastern Bulgaria, including the Black Sea city of Varna. Czech power utility CEZ supplies power to over 2 million households and companies in western Bulgaria, while EVN serves the south-eastern parts of the country.

At the beginning of December German electric energy company E.ON struck a deal to sell its Bulgarian unit E.ON Bulgaria to private Czech company Energo Pro.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!