The Mint goes private
In its announcement, the Ministry of Treasury informed about the sale of the block of shares of the Polish Mint. The announcement is presented below.
"Another successful transaction at the Warsaw Stock Exchange. The Ministry of Treasury, together with Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego, sold 42% of shares of The Mint of Poland, representing the value of PLN 347m, thus concluding the privatization of the company. The Ministry sold 31.6%, i.e. 2,079,115 Company shares, and BGK sold 10.3%, i.e. 674,401 shares, which have been purchased by national and foreign institutional investors.
The transaction of selling of The Mint of Poland had the form of accelerated book building. The sale, planned for two days, ended after one day with oversubscription. The achieved price of PLN 126 per share represents approx. 3% of discount against the market price as at the transaction day. In has been the lowest discount on a public transaction recently. The sale of shares of the Mint was listed among foreign and national institutional investors, with similar per cent share of TFI and OFE.
The Mint of Poland is the only listed mint in the world. The company is also an exclusive manufacturer of circulating and numismatic coins in Poland. Additional segments of company activity include ICT services, precious metal processing and real estate-related services. The company operates in the Polish and in foreign markets (among others in Andorra, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Ukraine).
Concluding the privatization of the Mint via the stock exchange increases significantly the volume of free floating company shares. Having regard to the unique nature of the Company as a publicly listed mint with a perspective to enter the WIG index and other stock exchange indexes, it is another attractive offer of the WSE.
The sale of shares of The Mint of Poland is another transaction in 2010 that proves significant possibilities of the Stock Exchange. What is more, it is a next step towards reinforcing the role of Warsaw as a regional capital centre in Central and Eastern Europe.
The present document (and information included herein) does not include or constitute an offer for the sale of securities or an invitation to purchase securities, on the territory of Member States to the European Union and the European Economic Area (including the territory of the Republic of Poland), in the United States of America, Australia, Canada or Japan or in any other country where such an offer or invitation to purchase would be illegal. The securities mentioned in this document are not and shall not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States of America unless they are registered under the provisions of the U.S. Securities Act or exempt from the registration obligation under the provisions of the U.S. Securities Act. No public offer that would involve the abovementioned securities will be carried out in the United States of America".
Source: Ministry of Treasury
Mariusz Przybylski
