Investors will need to pay top dollar for PGNiG shares

The price was set at the highest possible level of zł.2.98 per share, which means that the company will raise some zł.2.7 billion from its bourse debut. In spite of the maximum price level, PGNiG should have no problem selling the 900 million shares offered in the issue. According to Parkiet, demand is very high, and about 63,000 individual investors have already subscribed for shares worth zł.12.8 billion. According to Marek Kossowski, PGNiG's president, this means that the reduction in the individual tranche will amount to about 92%. Foreign investors also showed an interest in the company's shares. Some 130 European investors subscribed for a stake with a combined value of zł.16.1 billion. Polish institutions, in turn, declared demand for a stake worth zł.17.4 billion. The fact that the share price was set at the upper limit means that PGNiG will receive about zł.1.2 billion more than originally projected. "The zł.1.5 billion that we planned to achieve was a just a minimum forecast," said Kossowski. (Parkiet, p. 1) A.F.