Contor Group IPO Starts Today

Contor Group"s IPO begins today, 29 February, as per the documentation approved by the National Securities Commission (CNVM), and will last until 13 March. The IPO is managed by IFB Finwest and has a value of 11,784,813.08 RON or 31,012,600 shares with a unit price of 0.38 RON/share. Deputy General Manager Tudor Caracioni said the plan was to approach new production markets and consolidate on existing markets.

"Contor Group is one of the few water meter manufacturer in Europe that have an integrated production flow. Having been in this business for over 15 years, we have managed to secure the customers" confidence and a significant market share in Romania: approximately 70% for consumer meters. Also, we have important shares of other major markets, such as Germany, France, Poland, Russia, Ukraine and the Baltic countries. In the next few years, we intend to consolidate on existing markets and expand to Africa, the Middle East, Spain and Scandinavia," said Caracioni.

The market price of the listed shares (0.38 RON/share) is sustained by the accounting value (0.34 RON/share). The capitalization / EBITDA ratio is 4.55. Last year"s EBITDA amounted to 10.35 million RON, whereas the turnover gained 8% y/y to 14,142,350 EUR. Sales increased by 69% to 866,000 water meters, up from 513,000 units in 2006. Last year"s gross profit totalled 734,126 EUR, up by 49% y/y. Estimates for this year point to 1 million EUR in gross profit, up by 36% from 2007. The turnover is expected to gain 18%.