October 12 (SeeNews) - Croatia's Petrokemija [ZSE:PTKM] said on Thursday it is cutting its capital by 343.2 million kuna ($54.2 million/45.7 million euro) to 42.9 million kuna in order to cover its accumulated loss of 339.3 million kuna.
Petrokemija will perform the capital reduction by lowering the nominal price of its ordinary shares to 3.33 kuna from 30 kuna, it said in a Zagreb bourse filing.
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Every three ordinary shares will be then merged into one new share and its nominal value will be rounded to 10 kuna, Petrokemija explained.
The 3.9 million kuna remaining once the loss is covered will be transferred to the company reserves.
Petrokemija's loss for 2016 totalled 87.3 million kuna, and the loss transferred from 2015 and 2014 amounted to 251.8 million kuna, whereas the company's capital loss stands at 200,000 kuna.
Following the reduction process Petrokemija's capital will be divided into 4,290,393 shares with a par value of 10 kuna.
Earlier this month, Petrokemija revealed that several potential investors had submitted bids to acquire a stake in the company under its call for recapitalisation, which closed on September 22. Among the candidates are local oil pipeline operator Jadranski Naftovod and Polish chemicals group Azoty.
The aim of the recapitalisation is to modernise the manufacturing facilities, provide sources of financing, improve Petrokemija's position on the domestic and regional markets, and raise the level of efficiency of maintenance, logistics and other services.
The Croatian government controls some 80% of Petrokemija.
(1 euro=7.5092 kuna)