Turkey’s Enerjisa makes strong market debut

ISTANBUL

Shares for Turkey’s Enerjisa rose 11.2 percent in their market debut on Feb. 8 after the energy distributor raised $393 million in its initial public offering (IPO) last week. 

The shares first traded on the Istanbul stock exchange at 6.95 Turkish Liras each, versus the IPO price of 6.25 liras. These shares then rose to 7.20 liras in the following hours. 

Enerjisa, which is jointly owned by Turkey’s Sabancı Holding and Germany’s E.ON, floated 20 percent of its shares in the listing. 

At a gong ceremony to market the company’s debut on Feb. 8, Sabancı Holding Chair Güler Sabancı said the share allocation for domestic buyers had increased from 15 percent to 24 percent. 

“This indicates a strong demand from domestic buyers,” she said. 

Some three-fourths of the shares were sold to foreign buyers. 

Speaking at the ceremony, Energy Minister Berat Albayrak said strong investor demand for the company stocks showed Turkey was a safe harbor for investors despite recent global fluctuations. 

“Turkey will remain a safe point for them in the future,” he added.

The company distributes energy to some 20 million people in Turkey. 

Enerjisa sold 236.2 million shares at the bottom end of the aforementioned range of 6.25-7.50 lira a share, according to a report by the company’s book runner, which was released on Feb. 5. 

Strong international and local demand led to an oversubscription of the share offering by a factor of 4.8, the company said.