MADRID (Reuters) -Spanish power utility Naturgy said on Monday it would sell about 5.5% of its shares through an accelerated bookbuild and a bilateral sale as part of its plan to increase its free float and return to the main stock market indexes.
The accelerated bookbuild, which began on Monday, aims to sell 2% of the company’s shares, while the bilateral sale to an unnamed international financial institution would account for 3.5% of the company’s capital, Naturgy said in a statement.
The operations would increase Naturgy’s free float – or shares available to the public for trading – to 15%, which the company has previously said should be enough to achieve its goal of returning to the main indexes.
Naturgy in February said it would buy back almost 2.5 billion euros of its own shares to then resell them in the market after receiving the backing of its four main shareholders.
(Reporting by Charlie Devereux. Editing by Jane Merriman)
