Shares in Greek renewable energy firm drop in trade debut
Shares in Greek renewable energy firm ELTECH Anemos dropped on their first day of trading on the Athens Stock Exchange on Tuesday, as traders said its initial public offering price was seen as expensive.
Anemos offered shares to the public on July 9-11 in the country’s first IPO since its debt crisis began in 2009. The issue was slightly oversubscribed, with the offer price set at 1.70 euros, at the bottom of the price range.
At 0830 GMT Anemos shares were down 5.9 percent at 1.6 euros, underperforming the Athens bourse general index, which was down 0.6 percent.
“Investors are deeming Anemos’s issue price expensive compared to its Greek peers, so they are selling,” Takis Zamanis, a trader at Beta Securities, said.
Anemos, a unit of Greece’s biggest construction group Ellaktor, is a mid-sized renewable energy producer that operates 12 wind parks, a solar plant and a hydroelectric plant with 170 megawatts in total installed capacity.
The company has said it will use the IPO proceeds to finance part of a 118 million euro investment plan for new wind parks, which will add about 94 MW in capacity by 2015.hel
Renewable energy is one of few industries in Greece that has continued to expand through the recession, thanks to generous state subsidies.
Greek stocks have been battered by six years of recession and the debt crisis, which forced Athens to turn to the European Union and the International Monetary Fund for about 240 billion euros in aid.
But sentiment has picked up since Athens raised money successfully on the international bond markets twice this year after a four-year exile. [Reuters]
