Moldovan winemaker Purcari successfully closed its initial public offering (IPO) on the Bucharest Stock Exchange on Thursday, February 8, at a price of RON 19 per share.

The final price was at the bottom of the interval RON 19-RON 28 that the company’s shareholders set for selling 49% of the company’s shares. Even so, the Purcari shareholders managed to raise some EUR 40 million in a period of turbulences on international capital markets.

90% of the shares sold in the IPO were bought by institutional investors and 10% were allotted to individual investors. The retail investors’ tranche was four times oversubscribed.

The IPO valued the whole company at EUR 82 million. Purcari Wineries owns over 1,000 hectares of vines and four wineries in Romania and Moldova, namely Purcari Bostavan, Ceptura, and Bardar. Its main markets are Romania, Moldova, and Poland. The company had sales of some EUR 20.7 million and a net profit of EUR 4.8 million in the first nine months of 2017.

The group’s main shareholders are US investment fund Horizon Capital, Moldovan investor Victor Bostan, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

The Purcari shares will start trading on Bucharest Stock Exchange on February 14. Raiffeisen Bank and Swiss Capital managed the IPO.

editor@romania-insider.com