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Hungarian pharmaceutical company with EBRD investment is successfully privatised
Following the financial closing of the public offering of the Hungarian pharmaceutical company, EGIS Pharmaceuticals Ltd., the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will have invested a total of US$ 45 million in the company. Last December, the EBRD purchased 30 per cent of EGIS's share capital in a transaction designed to encourage the company's privatisation process.
Ron Freeman, First Vice President of the Bank, said: "The heavy demand seen for the shares of EGIS from both the domestic and foreign segments of the market confirms that the investors are seeing the same strong business fundamentals that led us to make our initial investment in the company, in advance of its privatisation. We congratulate EGIS and the Hungarian State Holding Company on the successful public offering of shares. With our support EGIS has made the transition from a state owned company to a widely held private enterprise."
EGIS has become the EBRD's first corporate investment in Hungary to go public. It also marks the first time that the EBRD was able to participate in a significant privatisation in an industrial company without foreign industrial or financial investors and where the shares of the company were subsequently publicly offered.
The EBRD's investment was in the form of a capital increase of EGIS. The proceeds of the Bank's investment will be used to fund the company's future development plans.
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