Digi locks in €12.7 m cash shot as 10.8 m spanish users push it toward april ipo
DIGI just proved that rock-bottom prices can still mint serious money. The Romanian-born carrier, famous for Spain’s cheapest fiber-mobile bundles, quietly pocketed a €12.74 million capital raise on Monday—one more step before it unleashes a €200 million IPO later this month.
Why the hurry? The company needs every euro to finish the most expensive network build Spain has seen from an outsider: a stand-alone fiber-and-5G grid that finally breaks its rental pact with Telefónica. Analysts peg the bill north of €1 billion, but DIGI’s 10.8 million local subscribers—already a record—are the collateral no bank can ignore.
Two share classes, one message: we stay in control
Monday’s filing created 191.2 million new shares, split into two tranches: 120.3 million at €0.10 face value and 70.9 million at a symbolic €0.01. The structure keeps voting power inside the Teszary family’s holding vehicle while giving future investors a liquid entry ticket. A second, smaller €1.7 million allotment on 17 March tidied up the legal scaffolding.
The paperwork frenzy follows December’s corporate flip from sociedad limitada to sociedad anónima—a boring legal footnote that customers actually noticed when their monthly bills changed letterhead overnight. In Spain, that switch is the unskippable first gate to any stock-market debut.
Market watchers pencil in 8 April for the capital hike’s settlement; the first trade on the BME Growth could land before the month is out, valuing DIGI Spain north of €4 billion. That would catapult the carrier straight into the Madrid exchange’s top-tier growth segment, rubbing shoulders with the very incumbents it has spent a decade undercutting.
The timing is ruthless: Movistar, Orange and Vodafone are bleeding prepaid users and hiking prices to protect margins. DIGI, meanwhile, keeps selling unlimited 100-Mbps fiber at €25 a month and 50-GB mobile lines for €15, all in. Profitability? Still healthy: parent DIGI Communications reported a 41% EBITDA margin in its last quarterly update, unheard-of for a discount operator.
Wall Street and Warsaw-based funds have already circled the pre-placement, but insiders insist no single outside block will breach 5%. Translation: the founders want the public’s cash, not its opinions.
If the roadshow hits its numbers, DIGI will walk away with enough dry powder to light up 2.5 million additional homes with its own fiber and blanket 80% of Spain with a proprietary 5G layer by 2026. The incumbents’ nightmare scenario—an ultra-cheap rival that actually owns the pipes—would then be complete.
Bottom line: Spain’s price war is about to become a capital war, and DIGI just loaded its last clip before stepping onto the trading floor.