Agria Group Holding tripped at its bourse debut today. 28,500 shares changed hands at an average of 7.92 leva, which is 12.4% below the IPO price (9.04 leva).

The company raised some 15.358 mln leva (7.857 mln euros) in an initial public offering of 1,700,000 new common, paperless, voting shares with a face value of 1 lev.

The placement price was set at 9.04 leva (the price rang was 9 – 13 leva). The issue was oversubscribed 1.5 times.

Agria intends to use the IPO proceeds to finance its 2007 – 2012 investment program. The fresh funds will increase the liquidity of its subsidiaries and will provide them with opportunities for expansion.

The reason for the weak debut is to a large extent the downward trend we have been witnessing during the past five months on BSE. SOFIX has lost a little over 31% in that period. Indexes declined in today's session as well.

Several companies have postponed their IPOs (BG Agro Group and Investbank) because of fears that the unfavorable situation on BSE and on the global capital market as a whole may hurt their bourse debut.