Serghei Bulgac, DIGI: "I have not seen any withdrawals following the investigation of the DNA against RCS&RDS"

Shares of DIGI Communications (DIGI) have been listed yesterday, on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, closing the session at 41.2 lei/share, up 3% over the price in the IPO, after closing at 41.7 lei/share. In the beginning of the trading session, DIGI shares rose towards 43.6 lei/share. Yesterday's trades resulted in a turnover of 62.82 million lei.

Serghei Bulgac, CEO DIGI, did not provide too many details about the structure of subscriptions and the allocation on the tier of institutional investors, which represented 85% of the IPO.

"Subscriptions have been very good, on both tiers, both retail and institutional. They have been oversubscribed. I don't know accurate numbers to give you", said Serghei Bulgac.

A number of 23.91 million shares have been included in the DIGI offer, representing 25.6% of the total number of shares issued by the company.

The amount of the offer was over 944 million lei (207 million Euros).

Serghei Bulgac has confirmed that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has become a shareholder of DIGI: "The offer is well balanced and investors have received well balanced packages. There aren't investors that got an edge over the others. The EBRD did indeed get the biggest block of shares. I don't know the amount to tell you".

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) had approved, on April 26th, its participation in the offer, but had also made it subject to the company presenting an annual report concerning the social and environmental aspects and the company taking on commitments to fight bribery and corruption.

As the IPO was under way, the DNA began prosecution of RCS&RDS, in which DIGI is a majority shareholder.

The EBRD told us that it has bought 3.25 million shares in DIGI.

The CEO of DIGI told us that he doesn't want to name the investors who participated in the IPO, for fear he might omit some of them. "But those are major funds", he said.

Serghei Bulgac also mentioned that the offer is 100% acquired by investors, from the market.

He says that he did not see any subscription withdrawals following the investigation of the DNA on RCS&RDS: "I have seen a more normal dynamic of the subscriptions".

Concerning the price of the IPO, Serghei Bulgac said that he is waiting for the market to decide, in the coming period: "I hope that shareholders will be pleased with the price, because the company did not sell shares in this process. We are pleased with the success of the transaction".

The Digi IPO was initiated by shareholders Carpathian Cable Investments SBRL, Celest Limited, ING Bank NV, Yarden Mariuma, Dorina Schelean, Nicuşor Dorel Schelean, Sirian Radu-Traian and Zoltan Teszari.

According to the prospectus, the main shareholder of the Company, Zoltan Teszari holds, directly and indirectly, 56.93% of the company and holds 100% of the class A ordinary shares issued by the company.

The offer comprised Class B DIGI shares, which have ten times less voting rights than class A shares.

Following the IPO, Zoltan Teszari maintained a significant stake in Digi and will continue to exercise a substantial influence on the Group, and that influence may have a negative effect on the interests of other stock holders, according to information in the prospectus.

When asked about the reasons which made a group of shareholders decide to exit DIGI, Serghei Bulgac answered: "Old shareholders have sold shares to new shareholders.

I don't know all of their reasons, but one of them is that they have invested in 1998-1999, that was 17-18 years ago. It is a long period of time and it was time to exit.

When asked why Zoltan Teszari wasn't present at the event for the launch of the company on the BSE, Serghei Bulgac responded: "He is the president of the company. I am CEO. That is how we have divided the roles in the company. He is less of a public figure, that is why he is not here. (...) We keep in touch every day. I think that both him and the other shareholders are very pleased that the transaction has taken place".

The DIGI CEO has also said that the company has also considered the exchanges of Amsterdam and Warsaw for the listing: "We have considered the regional exchanges mostly. London is also an option, by default, but we didn't think about it so much".

The total amount of the capitalization of the companies listed on the regulated market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange will exceed 20 billion Euros once Digi gets listed, Lucian Anghel, the president of the Exchange said on Tuesday.