Lisbon - 12 February 2014 – EnterNext, the Euronext N.V. subsidiary dedicated to promoting and growing its SME market, today welcomed the listing of Espírito Santo Saúde, SGPS(ESS) , one of the largest integrated private healthcare service groups, to the Lisbon market.
Espírito Santo Saúde, SGPS (ticker symbol: ESS), was listed through the admission to trading of 95,542,254 shares making up the company’s entire share capital. The admission and issue price of Espírito Santo Saúde, SGPS shares was set at €3,20 per share. Market capitalisation on the day of listing came to around €306 million. With the combined offer (public offering and private placement to retail and institutional investors, and new shares issued), the capital raised by Espírito Santo Saúde and its shareholders came to €149.8 million. The retail tranche was 104.9% oversubscribed, with 2,740 investors buying shares, and the institutional tranche obtained 60 investors from nine countries including UK (53%), Portugal (16%), US (13%), Spain (12%), Switzerland and France (2% each).
Luís Laginha de Sousa, CEO of Euronext Lisbonsaid:“This IPO is excellent news for our market and we are delighted to welcome Espírito Santo Saúde to Euronext Lisbon through which the company will have increased visibility in Portugal and abroad with customers, suppliers, employees and shareholders. IPOs such as these highlight the important role that Euronext plays in providing an alternative source of capital to companies looking to grow.”
Miguel Geraldes, Head of Cash and Listing of Euronext Lisbon, added: “Espírito Santo Saúde is the first Healthcare company to be listed on the Exchange, opening up a new sector for investors. Euronext will provide the company with access to a broad range of investors, both retail and institutional, and will allow comparison with competitors and other businesses. The success of this operation proves once more that capital markets are an important factor in the financing strategy of companies.”
Isabel Vaz, President of the Executive Committee of Espírito Santo Saúde added: "ESS Group today fulfills one of its most important challenges. ESS is the first company from the health care sector to be listed on the Portuguese stock exchange and the first private company since 2008. We believed that this was the right time: Portugal is giving concrete signs of economic recovery and financial markets are showing increased confidence in our country. A profound thanks to our new shareholders for their confidence in our future and the future of Portugal.”
To celebrate the listing, the President of the Executive Committee of Espírito Santo Saúde, together with the Portuguese Secretary of State for Health, rang the closing bell at Euronext accompanied by her team, lawyers and consultants in the Listing Process, and members of the Euronext team.