Euskaltel in successful stock market debut

Basque Country regional cable operator Euskaltel debuted on the Bilbao stock exchange yesterday, hitting a price of €10.315 at midday, some 8.5% higher than its opening price of €9.5. At the close of trading, Euskaltel’s shares were trading at €10.05.

The €9.5 set by the operator was in the middle of its indicative range of between €8.7 and €11.05.

Euskaltel president Alberto García Erauzkin said that it was a historic day for his company.

The flotation, with the sale of 126.5 million shares, gave the company a market cap of €1.3 billion. Kutxabank remains the largest shareholder of the company with a 30.1% stake, followed by Corporación Financiera Alba with an 8% holding.

Talking to journalists after the flotation, Erauzkin declined to discuss possible consolidation of the three independent northern Spanish cable operators – Euskaltel, Telecable and R – but said that “something will happen” with the operators in the future.