Capital Maritime Finance Corp. (CMF) has successfully completed its public offering, attracting exceptionally strong interest.
Total bids amounted to approximately €1.1 billion, making the offering one of the most successful in recent years, with the exception of the listing of Athens International Airport, which had different characteristics due to its partial privatisation and the specific nature of the investment. The offering attracted strong interest from both foreign institutional portfolios and Greek institutional investors.
The participation of Greek retail investors was described as unprecedented. The listing represented an opportunity to gain exposure to ocean-going shipping, one of the most important and emblematic sectors of the Greek economy, in which access through the stock market had until now been limited.
Major Greek business groups also participated as cornerstone investors. These included the Vardinogiannis, Mytilineos, Peristeris and Kokkalis groups, which invested a total of €70 million.
Strong demand prompted CMF to increase the size of the offering, with total gross proceeds reaching €300 million, before deduction of issuance costs. Although demand would have allowed the company to price the shares at the top of the initially announced range, at €7.68, it decided to set the offer price at €7.50 per new share. The decision was intended to preserve upside potential for new shareholders rather than exhaust the pricing headroom during the public offering.
The success of the listing is also particularly significant for Euronext Athens, boosting the international profile of the Greek capital market and advancing its ambition to establish Athens as a regional stock market hub for shipping.
Source: Naftemporiki