Bioton surprised the market when on Monday evening it said it would issue 272.2m shares of J series offered to qualified investors only. The company did not reveal who would buy the shares and at what price.
“The issue is offered to financial institutions, including pension funds, but the main shareholder: Prokom Investments will take part in the issue, which is a proof that it supports Bioton’s strategy. The company has recently met with investors who supported the issue. Yesterday the book building started. Offers are coming”, Sebastian Siejko, UniCredit CAIB broker said.
The brokerage is offering the shares.
Yesterday, Bioton stock dived 10.9 percent after it had lost 6.5 percent a day earlier. Analysts are surprised with the news from the company.
“This is a surprising and sudden issue. I expect that qualified investors will buy the shares at PLN 0.6 a share and sell them at PLN 0.98. The issue is very quick, it starts on December 17th and ends four days later. I would not give more than PLN 0.7 a share”, Jaroslaw Klepacki, EuroConsulting & Management analyst commented.
“It’s strange that prior to the statement about the issue, the stock price should have fallen after previous growth. The financial supervision commission should get interested in this”, Miroslaw Saj, DnB Nord analyst added.
Thanks to the issue, Bioton’s capital will grow by up to PLN 54.5m (EUR 15m) to PLN 598.8m.
“Funds raised in the issue will be spent for current and new investment projects”, the management said in the Monday statement. Analysts point out, however, that previous issues have failed to influence the company’s results. In the three quarters of this year, Bioton had PLN 202.05m of sales (against PLN 152.31m a year earlier) and PLN 86.41m of net income against PLN 67.5m a year earlier.
(PLN 1 = EUR 0.276)