The shares of Romanian hydropower group Hidroelectrica (BSE: H2O) started trading on the Bucharest Stock Exchange on Wednesday, July 12, with a gain of around 7% compared with the sale price in the initial public offering (IPO) ended on July 4.

Hidroelectrica’s strong debut also pushed up the BET index by 1.5% to its highest level in 15 months.

The H2O shares opened the day at RON 110, 5.6% above the IPO price of RON 104, and then went up to RON 112 (+7.7%) after about half an hour of trading. The transactions with H2O shares were over RON 300 million (EUR 60 mln) in the first 40 minutes of the trading session.

At RON 112 per share, Hidroelectrica is valued at over RON 50 bln (EUR 10 bln), which makes it the biggest local company listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange.

Fondul Proprietatea (FP) sold 78 million Hidroelectrica shares (17.3% of the company) for RON 8.1 bln (EUR 1.64 bln) in Romania’s biggest IPO, which ended on July 4. The fund may sell its remaining 11.7 million shares in the following month as part of an over-allotment option.

editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: BVB)