Midi shares rose on the exchange today following news over the weekend that the group intends to sell its shares in The Point shopping mall through an IPO.
The transaction, which will generate €20.9 million in net proceeds for MIDI, is subject to a number of conditions including shareholder approval at an Extraordinary General Meeting scheduled to be held on 22 March.
The news generated new demand for the equity with 742,200 shares changing hands during this morning’s session with the share price climbing by 7.4% to €0.29 – the highest closing price since 5 September 2012. Further bids remain unsatisfied at the closing price whilst lowest offers now at the €0.30 level.
The shares of Bank of Valletta plc also trended higher today with a 0.9% increase to a new 52-week high of €2.29 across eleven deals totalling 13,447 shares. Meanwhile, HSBC Bank Malta plc’s equity retreated by 0.4% back to the €2.75 level on volumes of 5,353 shares.
All other active equities ended the session unchanged. In the financial sector, Lombard Bank Malta plc held on to the €1.90 level across 5,264 shares and FIMBank plc maintained he US$1.00 level on a trade of just over 5,000 shares.
GO plc shares continued to trade at the equity’s 19-month high of €1.40 on just 2,000 shares. Similarly, no change was registered in the share price of Malta International Airport plc as the airport operator’s equity failed to hold on to an intra-day high of €1.80 to close at the €1.79 level across 11,400 shares.
Higher volumes were registered in RS2 Software plc and MaltaPost plc. The IT equity held on to the €0.86 level on a single trade of 22,000 shares. The postal operator was well supported at the equity’s 2013 high of €1.05 across twelve trades totalling 84,210 shares.
On the bond market, the Rizzo Farrugia MGS Index edged a further 0.1% higher to 1,008.794 points as the benchmark 10-year German Bund yields remained below the 1.6% level ahead of the preliminary election results in Italy later on today.
Locally, today marked the opening of subscriptions for the new Malta Government Stock issues as follows: (i) 3.00% MGS 2019 (III) at €100.50 giving a yield to maturity of 2.915% and (ii) 4.5% MGS 2028 (II) at par giving a yield to maturity of 4.5%. The Treasury is offering a total of €200 million in any combination of the two new stocks. Subscriptions for the General Public remain open until Wednesday 27 February. Copy of the Prospectus and application forms may be found at: http://rizzofarrugia.com/news-events/2013/pricing-of-new-stocks-mgs03-2/
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