Tuesday, November 8 2011 15:09
Non-residents acquire nearly 70% of shares of additional issue of Artsakh HPP Company
ArmInfo. Artsakh HPP Company (Artsakh GES) has raised over 3.6 bln drams (over $10 million) from the market due to additional issue of shares, ArmSwissbank (underwriter and market maker of the company) told ArmInfo the IPO of the additional issue (the third in the succession) was over on October 24.
The company is going to spend the raised funds on new investment projects, in particular, to complete construction of small HPPs and launch construction of new ones, as well as to reconstruct Sarsang HPP, Mardakert region, NKR.
A total of 130 investors participated in the IPO, with 70% of them being non-residents. It is noteworthy that the big shareholder of the company, the NKR Government, has refrained from acquiring the third-issue shares. In fact, the government's share in the statutory capital fell to 47.8% with the private capital growing to 52.5% (over half are non-resident shareholders). The third-issue shares (3289926 shares) of Artsakh HPP will be quoted on the exchange in the B category. Thus, the shares quoted on the exchange will number 10650000. The purchase price is 1120 drams per share and the sale price is 1070 drams per share.
IPO of Artsakh HPP is the only case in the history of the equity market of Armenia. The first IPO of the company was in the spring of 2009. The company raised nearly 900 mln drams then. The Central Bank registered the issue prospectus of the second tranche of the company's shares in the amount of 1.4 bln on Nov 2 2010. In December the issue was fully placed.
ArmInfo's REFERENCE: Artsakh HPP OJSC is one of the leading companies in the energy sector of NKR covering over 60% of the demand in the country. The company invested the funds raised from the first two issues in construction of four HPPs, with one of them being put into exploitation in 2010. The other three are under construction.
By data of the company, Artsakh HPP's profit for the first half of 2011 totaled 221.172 mln drams. The statutory capital of the company comprises 736074 ordinary shares. The shares are quoted on the B category, ANEK.