7 Oct 2010 12:50

Synergy places shares at $36 during SPO

MOSCOW. Oct 7 (Interfax) - The share placement price for OJSC Synergy's SPO on the MICEX and RTS Indexes came to $36, the company said in a press release.

The company started last week to place 2.9 million common shares (15% of charter capital). The guidance on the share price in the SPO came to $36-$40 per share. Therefore, the placement is being held at the lower threshold of the guidance. The total placement will come to $104.4 million.

VTB Capital and Renaissance Capital are the joint bookrunners in the transaction.

The selling shareholder, Sword Enterprises Ltd, will later buy out Synergy's additional share issue. Sword represents the interests of the company's founder and leading co-owner Alexander Mechetin.

Synergy held an IPO in Russia in November 2007, raising $190.4 million by selling shares for $70 each. The price range for the IPO was $61-$72. In the middle of October last year, the shareholders sold 4 million shares (around 27.93% of issued shares) at $20 a share, raising $80 million. The company later issued 4.6 million new shares and sold them for $20 a share in a private subscription for a total of $92 million. Sword Enterprises Ltd., owned by Synergy founder Alexander Mechetin, bought the bulk of the supplementary share issue. Mechetin owned 51.8% and Valentin Zavadnikov, a Federation Council member, owned 25.2% prior to the SPO.

Commenting on the SPO's results, Mechetin was quoted as saying that he had been entirely satisfied by the outcome. "We intend to use the funds receives for dynamic growth on Russia's alcohol market and strengthening our market positions. Furthermore, the expansion of the investor base and increasing the float will raise the liquidity of our shares," he said.

Synergy currently has a free float of 34.23%. It has 18,920,000 issued shares.

Synergy operates seven distilleries. Net profit fell 10% in 2009 to 1.15 billion rubles, revenue grew 8% to 18.07 billion rubles and earnings before taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) grew 17% to 2.92 billion rubles.