CSKA pulls out of public listing as share sale falls flat

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Category: Europe

Published on Tuesday, 20 May 2014 09:52
By Alexander Krassimirov
May 20 – Bulgaria’s CSKA Sofia has failed in its bid to become a public company listed on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange. The failed IPO sold only 360,000 shares – the minimum requirement for the club to become publicly traded was 1.4 million. 3 million shares had been released for sale at the nominal price of BGN 3 (€1,5).

For the whole period of the offering from 21 March to 19 May, the club has sold 359 206 shares in 5,720 trades which means the shareholders fund accumulated BGN 1 077 618 (€538,809)

On the last day of the offering 27,156 shares were traded. The flurry of activity from fans on the last day of the offering proved to be too little too late.

The club had already extended the deadline for the share issue and had promoted the campaign using former CSKA stars, and extensively in the media, including a TV campaign.

Those who have bought shares will have their money returned, though if bought through a broker, buyers will lose the commissions paid.

CSKA would have become the first Bulgarian football club to be publicly listed on the stock exchange.

Now the club faces the task of filling the funding gap from other sources. CSKA AD was created with a provision for BGN3 million of working capital. Currently the balance is at zero.

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