February 22 (SeeNews) - The shareholders of Montenegro's troubled Atlas Banka [MNG:ATBA] have not subscribed for any of the 88,710 ordinary shares offered as part of the troubled lender's recapitalisation call by Thursday, the country's central bank said.
"To date, none of the existing shareholders of Atlas Banka with pre-emption rights has made any subscription or payment for shares in an amount proportionate to their stakes," the central bank said in a statement on Thursday.
In January, the interim administrator of Atlas Banka invited shareholders with pre-emption rights to subscribe for a 22 million euro ($24.9 million) capital hike to rescue the bank and allow its normal operation. The deadline for the subscription of the 88,710 ordinary shares of 248 euro in par value each will expire on February 25.
"If this does not happen, the interim administrator, is obliged to adopt a new decision on the issuing of shares of the bank for the purpose of their sale to investors who are not existing shareholders of the bank," the central bank said.
The majority owner of Atlas Banka, Dusko Knezevic, said last month he was ready to participate in the recapitalisation of the bank. Knezevic, for whom a national arrest warrant has been issued by the Montenegrin authorities, announced earlier that he was in London and would not return to Montenegro. A procedure is underway to issue an international arrest warrant for Knezevic, Montenegrin media has reported.
In December, Montenegro's central bank said placed Atlas Banka and Invest Banka [MNG:IBMN] under its temporary administration due to their poor financial condition, after audit results showed that the capital of the two lenders did not meet the minimum risk requirements.
The combined market share of the two banks is just above 6%, central bank governor Radoje Zugic said in December. A total of 16 banks are active in Montenegro.
($ = 0.882101 euro)