The Athens International Airport (AIA) floated 30% of its shares in an initial public offering (IPO) through a bookbuilding process from January 25- February 1 and received offers surpassing a whopping 8 billion euros, reflecting an oversubscription of 12 times.
In an official announcement on the Athens Stock Exchange, the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF) said that the offer comprised of 90 million existing ordinary registered shares along with 5.18 million over-allotment shares, which were allocated as a result of excess demand.
The price range on the IPO stood at €7 to €8.20 per share, said HRDF, and finally settled at the upper end at €8.20 per share.
Institutional investors were allocated 86.44% of shares while 13.56% went to the Greek public, and both paid the same offering price.
The HRADF entered into a cornerstone investment agreement with AviAlliance, an existing shareholder of AIA with a 40% holding. AviAlliance has agreed to purchase 10% of the company’s outstanding share capital or 30 million ordinary shares, at an aggregate price amounting to the offering price as well as a premium. As a result AviAlliance exceptionally paid €9.758 per Ordinary Share.
More details on the allocation to the various categories of investors will be announced on February 6, 2024.
Demand for Greece’s largest airport was so high that it exceeded the deal size just hours after books opened, according to reports at Bloomberg. And the last time the ASE has seen such a large deal was in 2000 through the listing of PC Systems SA.
Shares will start trading on the Athens Stock Exchange on February 7.
AIA operates the Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport of Athens, the biggest and busiest airport in the country, with some 28 million passengers passing through its gates last year – or approximately 35% of passenger traffic through all of Greece’s airports.
Commenting previously on the IPO, Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis said, “The Athens airport IPO is going to be a big event for 2024…We want to give more depth to the Athens Stock Exchange and for the first time there’s real interest in companies to list on the Athens Stock Exchange.”
Morgan Stanley, BofA were joint global coordinators on the deal, while Deutsche Bank, Barclays, BNP Paribas, HSBC were joint bookrunners, with Ambrosia, Alpha Bank, AXIA, Eurobank, Euroxx, NBG, Pantelakis, Piraeus acting as co-lead managers.
