January 23 (SeeNews) - Croatia's Podravska Banka [ZSE:PDBA] said its shareholders have approved the management's plan to buy back the bank's own shares representing no more than 5% of its share capital.
The approval was granted at an extraordinary shareholders meeting held on January 21, Podravska said in a statement to the Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE) earlier this week.
The decision gives the management 24 months to carry out the planned share buyback.
Podravska Banka's shares last traded on the ZSE on January 14, closing flat at 200 kuna ($30/27 euro).
The bank's total share capital of 267.5 million kuna is divided into 668,749 shares of 400 kuna in par value each.
Podravska Banka was the eleventh largest lender in terms of assets in Croatia at the end of September, when a total of 20 banks operated in the country, according to the latest data available from the central bank. It held 0.8% of the Croatian banking system's total assets.
As of January 23, Italy's Assicurazioni Generali was the largest single shareholder in Podravska with a 9.54% stake, followed by Italy's Cerere with 9.53% and Croatian individual Miljan Todorovic with 8.33%, ZSE data shows. The remainder is distributed among smaller shareholders.
(1 euro = 7.44076 kuna)