August 20 (SeeNews) - Belgian banking and insurance group KBC on Monday said it plans to launch a buyout offer to minority shareholders in Bulgarian insurer DZI.
KBC will offer 188.37 levs ($130/96.47 euro) for each of the 725,282 shares in DZI it does not own, it said in a statement to the Bulgarian Stock Exchange. It currently owns 81.21% of the Bulgarian insurance company after acquiring a 70% stake in a 185 million euro ($253 million) deal earlier in August.
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DZI shares closed steady at 188.37 levs in volume of some 1,300 shares on the stock exchange in Sofia on Monday.
The Financial Supervision Commission has not yet reviewed the buyout bid, which will be valid for 28 days after it is published in two daily newspapers.
DZI, one of the 10 biggest public companies in Bulgaria in terms of market capitalisation, reported a net profit of 1.39 million levs for the first half of 2007, down 46.5% on the year.
The KBC Group was set up in 2005 through the merger of KBC Bank & Insurance Holding Company and its parent company Almanij. It serves some 11 million customers and employs around 50,000 people. In southeastern Europe it is also present in Romania, Serbia and Slovenia.
(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)