We are pleased to announce that we advised Pepco Group N.V. on a buyback of its own shares carried out by way of a time-limited invitation to submit share sale offers at a price of PLN 47.52 per share. The company acquired 36.5 million of its own shares for PLN 1.73 billion, with the average reduction rate of the offers submitted by shareholders standing at 91.76%. This was the largest buyback of own shares in the history of the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
Following the completion of the transaction, the stake held by IBEX Retail Investments Limited, the majority shareholder of Pepco Group, in the total number of the company’s shares, excluding treasury shares, amounted to 66.1%, and its stake in the total number of issued shares amounted to 58.3%.
The shares acquired by Pepco Group are, as a rule, to be cancelled and the company’s share capital will be reduced accordingly. An exception may be made for shares that will in the future be used to settle awards granted under share-based incentive schemes for the company’s employees and management.
“We are very satisfied that we were able to support Pepco Group in the largest share buyback in the history of the Warsaw Stock Exchange. This is another project that confirms our capabilities in advising on the most complex and significant transactions on the Polish capital market. We would like to thank Pepco Group for their trust and congratulate everyone involved in this success”, says Filip Leśniak, partner co-heading the equity capital markets practice.
Pepco Group operates a network of discount variety stores comprising 4,359 stores in 18 European countries, serving more than 41 million customers a month in attractive discount markets, including in Central and Eastern Europe, Spain and Italy.
The transaction team comprised Paweł Zdort and Filip Leśniak (partners co-heading the capital markets practice), Maciej Kowalski (senior associate) and Michał Burgieł (associate).
