Monbat

The largest Bulgarian car battery producer Monbat received the regulator’s approval for its 7 year EUR 30m convertible bond issue, according to an announcement by the regulator. ELANA Trading is the broker placing the issue.

Bond issue core terms

The interest rate on the bond is 6-month EURIBOR plus 300 bps, but not less than 3% annually. The issuance of up to EUR 30 million and the capital raised will be used for the acquisition of plants in Tunisia and Italy.

Bonds repayment is in three installments at the end of the 5th, 6th and 7th years at 20%, 30% and 50% of the nominal value of the issue, respectively. In the event of conversion, the principal repayments will be calculated on the basis of the bond’s outstanding nominal value at the date of the respective principal payment.

The bond is callable at the end of the 5th year at a price of 101% of the outstanding nominal value. The conversion option is available on the 48th, 66th and 78th months. The amount to be converted will be against shares issued of Monbat at a price equal to 90% of the weighted average price per one share for the six months prior to the date of the conversion. The minimum conversion amount is 5% of the outstanding bonds at each conversion date if the issue exceeds EUR 20m. It is set at a minimum of 10% if the bond issue is less than EUR 20m.

Bond issue placement will be considered successful at a minimum of EUR 15 mln.

Fueling Monbat expansion

The bond issue is part of the expansion financing plan revealed back in September 2017 by Monbat management at an Investor Day.

By 2021, the Company plans to add:

• EUR 12.4m in EBITDA from current organic business
• EUR 22.7m in EBITDA from scaling up the organic business via group synergies and acquiring a vertically integrated lead acid batteries producer ASSAD in Tunis as well as lead acid recycling plant Piombifera Italiana S.p.A in Brescia, Italy
• EUR 4.2m in EBITDA from diversifying its recycling operations by adding tin and antimony extraction from lead recycling as well as batteries separator recycling
• EUR 8m in EBITDA from focused product diversification into high-power Li-Ion batteries with the acquisition of GAIA and EAS, Germany; Monbat to focus on the Lithium Iron Phosphate based high power batteries with industrial and hybrid application, targeting energy storage, industrial, aerospace, rail and bus transport industries

Find out more about Monbat vision for the future

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