COBALT advised AS PRFoods on the public offering and listing of secured notes

COBALT advised AS PRFoods upon the public offering and listing of secured notes. PRFoods is a leading fish and fish products manufacturer and wholesaler, which is listed on the Tallinn Stock Exchange and operates successfully in Estonia, the Nordics and Scotland.

The public offering of notes was the second stage of PRFoods’ note issue – in January this year, PRFoods carried out a private placement of notes in Estonia and the other Baltic countries, in relation to which already issued 91,096 notes with the aggregate nominal value of EUR 9,109,600 were issued to investors. The private placement was also advised by COBALT.

Altogether 133 Estonian investors participated in the public offering, who (together with PRFoods itself) subscribed for a total of 8,904 notes with the aggregate nominal value of EUR 890,400. PRFoods intends to hold the notes subscribed by it until the stabilisation of the financial markets and increase of the demand from investors, and sell the notes thereafter.

Together with carrying out the public offering, PRFoods also successfully applied for the listing of all issued notes, i.e. altogether 100,000 notes, with the aggregate nominal value of EUR 10,000,000, on the Baltic Bond List of Tallinn Stock Exchange. The date of listing and first trading date of the notes on Baltic Bond List of Tallinn Stock Exchange is 6 April 2020.

Although the term of the public offering coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic and as a result, with one of the most volatile and difficult periods in the history of financial markets, PRFoods was able to successfully carry out the public offering and listing. With the note issue, PRFoods raised more funds than initially planned, refinanced its existing liabilities in the planned extent and provided to Estonian investors a new attractive investment opportunity.

COBALT’s team for this project consisted of partner Marina Kotkas, senior associate Mattias Tammeaid and assistant lawyer Johanna Lumiste, who advised PRFoods in all aspects of the transaction, starting from the structuring of the transaction until the issue and listing of the notes.