Fintel Energia to conduct IPO on Belgrade Stock Exchange by mid-year

In the first half of the year, Fintel Energija will conduct the initial public offering (IPO) on the Belgrade Stock Exchange in order to secure money for the construction of wind farms in Serbia.

This will be the first IPO on the Belgrade Stock Exchange in the last 80 years.

Fintel Energija is subsidiary of the Italian company Fintel Energia Group S.P.A. Fintel Energija and the Serbian company MK holding, owned by Miodrag Kostić, are shareholders of the MK-Fintel Wind.

At the end of 2015, MK-Fintel Wind opened a 9.9 MW wind farm Kula in Kula municipality, first in Serbia, and in October 2016  6.6 MW wind farm La Piccolina was inaugurated in Zagajica near Vršac. In June last year, company started construction of 117 MW Košava wind farm.

“For nine months now we are preparing IPO for this energy company, and we expect that in the first half of the year the Belgrade Stock Exchange could get the first IPO ever since 1940,” Siniša Krneta, CEO at Belgrade Stock Exchange told Beta agency.

Fintel Energija, according to the Beta, plans to raise EUR 15 million from institutional and individual investors, and the funds will be used for the construction of the Košava wind farm, as well as for other projects in development.

In May last year, Tiziano Giovannetti, CEO at MK-Fintel Wind, said the company plans to offer 20% to 40% of Fintel Energy shares hoping to raise around EUR 60 million.

“IPO would range from 20% to no more than 40%. Of course, we do not want to sell a majority stake because we do not want to lose control of the company,” Giovannetti said at the time.

Krneta noted that this IPO could provoke both institutional and individual investors to invest on the Belgrade Stock Exchange at the time of extremely low interest rates.

Serbia IPO Go project

“Serbia is one of the rare post-socialist countries that did not have IPOs on the stock exchange during the transition period,” he said.

Krneta believes that it is possible to make breakthrough and that the Serbian stock market offers potential, which is why the Belgrade Stock Exchange, with the support of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), launched the Serbia IPO Go project, which aims to promote and support IPO in the sector of private companies.