November 22 (SeeNews) - Cyprus Popular Bank Public (CPB) said on Tuesday it has called an extraordinary shareholders meeting of its Serbian unit Marfin bank on December 13 to propose a squeeze-out of minority shareholders.
The Cypriot bank, owner of a 98.52% stake in Marfin bank's share capital and 99.09% of its voting rights, intends to propose to pay 126 dinars per share, in line with the price set by independent consulting company WM Equity Partners, the lender said in a filing with the Belgrade stock exchange.
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The decision for the squeeze-out was taken by the board of directors of Marfin bank on November 16, CPB said.
In October, Serbian media reported that CPB had entered into a share purchase agreement with Czech Expobank to sell its shares in Marfin bank. The official purchase contract was signed on September 30, but is yet to be approved by the competent authorities in Serbia, the Czech Republic and Cyprus, according to media reports.
Marfin bank saw its 2015 loss widen to 837.3 million dinars ($7.2 million/6.8 million euro) from 571.4 million dinars a year earlier. At the end of last year, Marfin Bank's capital was made up of 11,097,112 ordinary and 246,105 preference shares. Cyprus Popular Bank Public currently owns 11,174,875 shares in the lender.
(1 euro=123.464 Serbian dinars)