Page 19 - bnemagazine bne_December 2021_20211203.pdf

bne December 2021 Companies & Markets I 19
All in all, says Hanga, “We have really had a record year.”
Not only have there been 22 bond issues listed on the exchange since the beginning of 2021, there have also been nine t-bill issues, bringing the fixed income financing through the exchange to a record €1.3bn. On top of this, 19 companies have listed since the beginning of the year with a total capitalisation of around €1bn, 17 of them on the alternative AeRO market
as well as two larger companies – One United Properties and Transport Trade Services (TTS) – on the main market.
“If we compare this year with the few last years, we seen an explosion in the number of listings in 2021, higher than in the last five years in total,” says Hanga.
“Looking at the pipeline, we see a lot of deals which are going
to come to the market in the coming months and according to public data we collect from the news we see strong interest from local entrepreneurs to come to the BVB.”
As well as Romanian companies, Hanga says “we are looking regionally and we would like very much to support companies
from the nearby space to finance themselves.” This has already happened with the listing of Moldova-founded Purcari Winery in 2018. Now Hanga says he sees more companies looking at the BVB as regional hub for financing their growth.
As the AeRO market has become increasingly active – the market capitalisation of all companies listed on the AeRO market now exceeds RON15bn, a 57% y/y increase –
the BVB launched a new index, BET AeRO, dedicated to the market in October.
Hanga notes there was a "lot of noise around the AeRO market, a lot of interest in new companies” sparking discussion in
the investor space about the need for an index. The index
will reflect the liquidity and free float market cap of AeRO companies. It will start with 20 companies, and Hanga forecasts “quite high volatility in terms of the structure of the index”, given the number of new companies getting listed on AeRO.
At the same time, the BVB launched the BET-TRN and BET-XT- TRN as the net total return variants of the existing BET and BET- XT indices, the first indices of this type launched by the BVB.
Emerging markets IT giant Softline sets final offer price in IPO
bne IntelIiNews
International digital transformation and cybersecurity solution provider Softline announced the final offer price in its London IPO on October 27. Securities issued in the listing will be set at $7.50 per global depository receipt (GDR).
Shares of the company, which announced its intention to float on September 30, began trading on the London and Moscow stock exchanges on October 27. As a consequence of the offering, Softline now has a total market capitalisation of around $1.5bn. Further funds could be raised through the sale of up to 8mn more shares made available by existing shareholders in an over-allotment option.
Softline’s founder and chairman Igor Borovikov said:
“Today is an extremely proud day for the whole company. Softline began as a local software reseller with 10 employees and has grown into a global emerging markets’ IT leader, with a c. 6,000-strong world-class team working in 50+ countries. With the IPO now complete, we are remarkably well equipped to further reinforce our market position while continuing our trajectory of fast and profitable growth.”
Based on the offering price, the company has raised around $400mn in the IPO. Softline plans to use the proceeds of the offering to fund growth, including through its M&A strategy,
developed in conjunction with anchor shareholder, DaVinci Capital, which bought into the group four years ago. With the help of a dedicated team which pursues M&A opportunities
to diversify the company’s portfolio of strategic assets, it has already completed 16 M&A transactions since 2016. In a recent exclusive interview with bne IntelliNews, Borovikov explained that international growth was central to the company’s model, with a particular focus on emerging markets.
The company, which started in Russia but has its headquarters in London and now operates in over 50 countries, previously became one of the few tech players of Russian origin to issue bonds, placing exchange bonds in October and April 2020, as well as in December 2017.
Borovikov described his company as a consulting group focusing on software asset management in emerging markets, information and IT security, cloud and future datacentre, as well as a digital workplace for corporate clients. It is a Microsoft Global Partner, and serves large clients around the world, including Coca-Cola and Citibank.
bne IntelliNews has been following the story since 2018, when Softline was among the Russian mid-caps expected to IPO in the next two to three years.
www.bne.eu