SARAJEVO (Bosnia and Herzegovina), September 22 (SeeNews) – Bosnia's Muslim-Croat Federation has decided to cut by 0.77 marka (0.44 euro/0.39 euro) to 14.73 marka per share the asking price for its stake in drug maker Bosnalijek after its previous attempt to sell the stake failed, the entity's government said on Thursday.
The entity is trying to find a buyer for 1,507,724 Bosnalijek shares, equal to 19.3% of the drug maker's capital.
You can subscribe to our M&A newsletter here
The Federation did not receive a single bid in an auction for its stake in Bosnalijek held on the Sarajevo Stock Exchange on July 28, and has thus decided to lower the minimum asking price, the government said following a weekly session.
Earlier this year, two auctions for a state stake in insurer Sarajevo Osiguranje also failed to attract bidders on the bourse. The government, however, succeeded last week in selling a 39.9% stake in tobacco factory Fabrika Duhana Sarajevo (FDS) to Austrian investment company CID Adriatic Investments GmbH (CID) for 42.7 million marka.
Bosnalijek's net profit increased to 11.2 million marka in 2015 from 10.1 million marka a year earlier. The company markets its product in 13 countries and employs over 700 in Bosnia.
The Federation is one of the two autonomous entities that make up Bosnia and Herzegovina. The other one is the Serb Republic.
(1 euro=1.95583 marka)