TBC Bank appears on London Stock Exchange

Georgia’s Prime Minister is in London to see Georgia’s TBC Bank sell its stock for the first time to the public on the London Stock Exchange.

TBC Bank set the price for its initial public offering (IPO) of global depositary receipts to be traded in London at $13 (22.9 GEL), representing one share, which valued the company around $640 million (1.13 billion GEL).

Global depositary receipts are used as a way for foreign companies, often in emerging markets, to access the greater liquidity and investor base of the London markets.

In a recent statement the bank said the total size of the transaction was $238.7 million (420.5 million GEL), excluding shares offered as part of an over-allotment option, making it the largest IPO by a Georgian company. 

The bank said that in the first quarter, TBC’s profits were 35.9 million GEL (£12.9m), up from 19.7 million GEL (£6.6m) the previous year.

Figures from the end of 2013 stated TBC, which established in 1992, had slightly more than 33 percent market share of retail deposits in Georgia.

Barclays and UBS Investment Bank are acting as Joint Global Coordinators and Joint Bookrunners. Renaissance Capital is acting as Joint Bookrunner and Peel Hunt as Co-Manager.

TBC's rival, Bank of Georgia (BoG), was the first Georgian company to list on the London Stock Exchange in 2006 and now had a market cap of £849.4 million (2.5 billion GEL).