Banca Comercială Română: active role in Hidroelectrica's IPO

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Bucharest, 11 July 2023 - Banca Comercială Română S.A. acted as Joint Bookrunner in the Hidroelectrica IPO and offered retail investors extended trading options: 100% digital through George and BCR Broker application, by phone or directly in BCR branches.

Banca Comercială Română acted as Joint Bookrunner in connection with Hidroelectrica's Initial Public Offering
Hidroelectrica's listing is the largest IPO in Romania and could led to the promotion of our country as an MSCI Emerging Market
BCR customers benefited of extended trading options: 100% digital through George and BCR Broker, by phone or directly in BCR branches

"The listing of Hidroelectrica marks several firsts on the capital market and shows that Bucharest Stock Exchange benefits of a good market liquidity, but also that Romania is an economy with great growth potential. In a global context of pronounced uncertainty, the 4.7 times oversubscription of shares is a signal of confidence for Hidroelectrica. In addition, it opens a new chapter for small investors, and for us at BCR, it is a clear sign that we must scale up our efforts to democratize access to financial literacy and investment education.

We are pleased to be part of this large-scale IPO, as a Joint Bookrunner, but also having Erste Group Bank AG, the banking group of which BCR is a member, as one of the Global Coordinators of this transaction. I want to thank my colleagues for their involvement in the success of this project, but also for their consistency in profiling the local capital market to contribute to the achievement of our country’s potential, and to fulfill its continued growth. We believe that this offer was a strategic opportunity for both local and international investors to become shareholders in a European green energy producer, which is not only a megatrend, but a key essential industry for a better future," said Sergiu Manea, CEO Banca Comercială Română.

The extraordinary interest on the local market for Hidroeletrica's shares is reflected by the record number of subscriptions on the retail tranche, over 51,500, which represents an oversubscription level of 470%. The IPO benefitted from a very high interest of local and international institutional investors, and BCR alongside the team handling this project have brought a highly significant contribution to the successful closure of the IPO.

The Hidroelectrica IPO, to be listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange is a strategic transaction for Romania, with significant implications, including the possibility of Romania’s promotion to Emerging Market status by MSCI, one of the leading providers of global benchmarks. Romania is currently a Frontier Market, and promotion to Emerging Market would mean strengthening investment confidence and developing the local capital market.

In fact, Hidroelectrica is the largest IPO in Romania, the third largest in Central and Eastern Europe to date and the largest in Europe this year.

In terms of the retail customers appetite for investment development, BCR will continue its financial education efforts by advancing the need to build financial security, health, and independence over time through helping people set up a diversified savings and investment portfolio.

In addition, BCR retail investors are able to access a 100% digital trading experience directly in George through BCR Broker. The platform allows users to access Bucharest Stock Exchange real-time information and provides the possibility of permanent monitoring and evaluation of the financial instruments’ portfolio, offering investors multiple functionalities:

Possibility to submit buy/sell orders directly in the market (local or + 30 international markets) without having to call a broker
Integrated view of the entire portfolio value transacted on the different stock exchanges
Real time BVB market price information
Possibility to monitor the status of orders sent to the market, with the possibility to modify or cancel them at any time, if they have not already been executed
24/7 view of transactions history
Buying power calculation (including cash positions)
Possibility to create a virtual portfolio with market price alerts for the different instruments of interests
of money transfer requests from the trading account to current account opened within BCR

Hidroelectrica is the largest electricity producer in Romania, with a 100% renewable portfolio. The company will be included in the BET index since the first day of trading on the BSE which will take part on 12 July, after Fondul Proprietatea, managed by Franklin Templeton, raised €1.9 billion from the sale of its entire 19.94% stake in Hidroelectrica.