UPDATE: Enel Green Power Cuts IPO Price To Win Investors

Enel Green Power, the renewable energy unit of Italian utility Enel SpA (ENEL.MI), has cut the price range for its initial public offering to EUR1.60 to EUR2.10 a share, people familiar with the matter said Thursday, in an effort to attract a broader base of global institutions to the transaction.

Rome-based Enel is selling a stake of up to 32.5% of Enel Green Power for as much as EUR3.41 billion as part of its drive to slash its net debt by the end of the year.

At the bottom end of the range, the transaction would raise EUR2.6 billion--less than Enel's stated EUR3 billion target--and would value Enel Green Power at EUR8 billion. The price range had initially been set at EUR1.80 to EUR2.10.

Mediobanca (MB.MI), one of the joint global coordinators, in a note to prospective investors said it is seeing huge interest after the price cut.

Order books close at 1430 GMT Friday and the shares are to start trading on the Milan and Madrid bourses Nov. 4. Intesa Sanpaolo SpA (ISP.MI), Credit Suisse Group (CS) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS) are also joint global coordinators, while UniCredit SpA (UCG.MI), J.P. Morgan Chase & Co (JPM), Morgan Stanley (MS), Barclays PLC (BCS), Bank of America Corp Lynch (BAC) and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (BBVA) are joint bookrunners.

One person close to the transaction said that Enel decided to cut the price range to win over some institutions who felt the initial valuation was too high. An Enel spokeswoman wasn't immediately available to comment.

Even at the low end of the range, the offer would be the largest IPO this year in Europe, topping Polish insurer PZU SA's roughly EUR2 billion offer in April

-By Margot Patrick, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0)20 7842 9451; margot.patrick@dowjones.com

(Liam Moloney in Rome and Sabrina Cohen in Milan contributed to this article.)

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