At its session today Bulgaria’s Financial Supervision Commission approved the prospect of First Investment Bank AD’s (FIB) IPO. The issue is in the amount of 10 mln leva distributed in 10 mln shares with a face value of 1 lev each resulting from the bank’s capital increase from 100 mln leva to 110 mln leva.

The IPO will include up to 16.5 mln common paperless voting shares. 10 mln shares will be newly issued, and up to 6.5 mln will be existing shares currently owned by First Financial Brokerage House (FFBH).

The shares have a face value of 1 lev and their issue value, respectively selling price, will be determined using the book-building method based on the stock amount and prices booked by the investors. All shares will be acquired by the investors with rated bids at the same price.

Investors willing to acquire shares from the IPO can apply in all FIB offices, at the leading manager of the IPO FFBH or any other investment broker. Two types of bids will be accepted – market and limited.
FFBH intends to offer for trade part of its share to provide more of FIB’s for free trade on BSE, respectively to increase the stock’s liquidity.

The goal of FIB’s capital increase is to guarantee the financial institution’s growth. The money raised from the offering will be used to increase the bank’s market share, its credit portfolio, the number of credit and debit cards in the branch network, the number of ATMs and the offering of competitive financial services to corporate clients, small and medium-sized enterprises and individuals.

First Investment Bank net profit increased 36.34% last year to 29 mln leva. Its capital adequacy exceeds the regulatory requirements – 15.81%.

The main shareholders of FIB are Ivaylo Mutafchiev and Tzeko Minev who control 31.83% of the bank’s capital each. First Financial Brokerage House Ltd. holds 13.89%, Legnano Enterprise Limited has 8.45%, while Domenico Ventures Limited and Rafaela Consultance Limited have 7% each.