Latham & Watkins Advises on Public Power Corporation’s €4.25 Billion Share Capital Increase
Latham & Watkins has advised the pool of banks in connection with the non-preemptive share capital increase of Public Power Corporation S.A. — the leading Southeast European electric utility and a critical infrastructure player, operating mainly in Greece and Romania — through a fully marketed offering of 228,126,677 new ordinary shares.
The landmark transaction represents one of the most significant equity capital markets transactions in the European utilities sector and a major milestone for PPC, allowing the company to advance the implementation of its strategic business plan and to finance part of its investment plan. The offering price was set at €18.63 per share, for a total consideration of approximately €4.25 billion. The transaction was conducted through (i) a public offering in Greece and (ii) an international institutional offering addressed, in the United States, to qualified institutional buyers in reliance on Rule 144A under the US Securities Act and, outside the United States, in compliance with Regulation S, as well as to qualified investors in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom.
Concurrently, PPC also completed the sale of 13,419,217 treasury shares at a price equal to the price of the newly issued shares for a total consideration of approximately €250 million. The sale was executed through a private placement outside Euronext Athens to meet the excess demand expressed by the market in the book‑building process.
The Latham team was led by partners Jeff Lawlis and Ryan Benedict, with Capital Markets lawyer Irene Pistotnik and associate Edoardo Picchi with assistance from Giulio Maccarrone on US capital markets matters. Advice was also provided on US tax matters by a team led by partner Rene de Vera, with associate Jay Khurana; on UK corporate matters by counsel Koushik Prasad; and on UK tax matters by partner Karl Mah and counsel James Leslie and Lina Le Roux.
Citigroup Global Markets Europe AG, Goldman Sachs Bank Europe SE, and J.P. Morgan acted as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners; BofA Securities, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, and UBS Investment Bank acted as senior joint bookrunners; Barclays, BNP Paribas, Jefferies, Mediobanca, Société Générale, and UniCredit acted as joint bookrunners; and National Bank of Greece, Alpha Bank, Eurobank, Piraeus Bank, Euroxx Securities, AXIA, Optima Bank, CrediaBank, Pantelakis Securities, and Ambrosia Capital acted as co‑managers.