January 9 (SeeNews) - Bosnian fuel trader Krajinapetrol [BANJ:KRPT-R-A] said its management board is supporting the offer of local wholesaler of oil products NES for the purchase of the remaining 67.75% stake that NES does not already own in Krajinapetrol.
On December 30, NES said it is offering to purchase all of Krajinapetrol's shares it does not own for 0.81 marka ($0.46/0.41 euro) apiece.
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The offered price is higher than the average price at which NES acquired its stake in Krajinapetrol over the past year, the Krajinapetrol management said in a statement on Wednesday.
The management also supports NES' plans and targets for the future operations of Krajinapetrol, which include reorganisation of business processes to reflect the fact that both companies are active in the same sphere of business.
NES has said it plans a joint entry into new markets in order to strengthen the competitiveness of the two companies. In the next two years, it aims to invest primarily in boosting the working capital and increasing the range of products offered on the Bosnian market, as well as in building new retail and storage capacities and renovating the existing ones. The planned investment will be supported by own funds and by short- and long-term borrowing, NES has said.
Krajinapetrol's management also noted that the representative of Croatia's energy company INA on the board did not share their positive opinion of NES' takeover bid.
In November, Bosnian media reported that INA was also planning to launch a buyout bid for Krajinapetrol and had already started a due diligence process in order to decide on the investment.
The largest single shareholder in Krajinapetrol is Bosnia's Serb Republic shareholding fund Akcijski Fond with 42.27%. It is followed by NES with 32.25% and INA with 9.72%. The remainder belongs to smaller shareholders.
The government of the Serb Republic entity controlled a combined stake of 52% in Krajinapetrol through several of its state funds as of Thursday, according to data from the Banja Luka Stock Exchange.
Krajinapetrol's shares last traded on the Banja Luka bourse on December 26, closing flat at 0.80 marka.
The Serb Republic is one of two autonomous entities that form Bosnia and Herzegovina. The other one is the Federation.
(1 euro = 1.95583 marka)