At the beginning of June, the Bulgarian public company Bianor Holding announced they had acquired Digital Lights, together with 51% of Prime Holding. The €50M M&A deal consolidated the companies under a new brand, Wiser Technology, aiming to enhance the performance of the merged companies. Today, Wiser Technology, received approval from the Bulgarian Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) to proceed with an initial public offering (IPO) of shares on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE). This approval marks the commencement of the capital increase process.
Wiser Technology plans to issue up to 4,096,711 new shares at an issue price of €3.07 per share. If fully subscribed, this capital increase will bring in €12,6M and increase the total number of company shares to 16,386,844.
Sofia International Securities has been appointed as the lead arranger for this offering.
Capital increase from IPO will be used for acquisitions in Western Europe
Since the beginning of 2023, Bianor Holding has raised over €14.3M through an initial public offering on the BSE. The capital increase has facilitated 6 acquisitions, boosting the company’s pro forma consolidated revenues to €13.8M for the first half of this year – an increase of more than nine times compared to the same period last year.
“We are pleased to see considerable interest from investors, with close to €11M already committed. The proceeds from this capital increase will be used for acquisitions in Western Europe and to cover bridge financing used for the acquisition of Digital Lights earlier this year,” said Kosta Jordanov, CEO of Wiser.
M&A deals showcase an opportunity to gain competitive advantages and enhance value by leveraging synergies and emphasizing growth, global expansion, and competitiveness. That is especially evident with Bianor, Prime and Digital Lights which have combined team of 500+ software engineers, scientists, and consultants. Now under one brand, Wiser Technology primarily targets sectors such as telecommunications, automotive, aerospace, defense, and finance, among others. Some of the group’s clients and project partners are Airbus, Leonardo, Indra, IBM, UniCredit, Nokia, Bosch, and more.
The companies within Wiser Technology still continue to operate largely independently within their existing structures while the group centralizes corporate development, finance, marketing, and sales. Dimitar Dimitrov, CEO of Digital Lights, and Georgi Sokolov, CEO of Prime Holding, were nominated as members of the Board of Directors of Wiser Technology. Kosta Jordanov, co-founder and CEO of Bianor Holding, serves as CEO of Wiser Technology and remained on its Board of Directors.
Wiser Technology IPO: Before the start of the trade…
Wiser’s management invites the investment community to an open meeting on September 11th, 2024, at 4 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency Sofia Hotel. The meeting will provide further details on the company’s strategic plans, as well as the objectives and parameters of the upcoming capital increase. Participants will have an opportunity to engage directly with the management team. The meeting will be held in English and is open to all interested parties upon registration. Additionally, it will be streamed live on the company’s YouTube channel.
Down below you can chech an indicative schedule, and the final schedule will be released upon approval by the BSE.
September 4, 2024 – Prospectus publication date
September 4, 2024 – Announcing the public offering starts under the Law on Public Offering of Securities (LPOS) at www.x3news.com, the site of the issuer and the site of the lead manager
September 17, 2023 – Start of the rights transfer and the shares underwriting
September 17, 2024 – Start date for trading in rights under Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) rules
October 4, 2024 – End date for trading in rights under BSE rules
October 10, 2024- End date for transfer of rights under LPOS
October 14, 2024- Administrative auction in rights that have not been exercised
October 18, 2024- End date for the underwriting of shares under LPOS
October 24, 2024- Registration of the newly issued shares and the capital increase in the Commercial Register
November 7, 2024 – Registration of the new shares on shareholder accounts at the Central Depository
December 5, 2024- Start of the trade in new shares at BSE
