March 23 (SeeNews) - Serbian civil engineering group Energoprojekt [BEL:ENHL] said on Thursday the stake of Austria's Erste Bank's custodian unit in its capital was reduced to 4.443%.
On March 13, Erste Bank Custody cut the number of Energoprojekt shares it owns to 485,699 from 565,699, the civil engineering group said in a filing with the Belgrade Stock Exchange.
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Erste Bank Custody controlled a 5.175% stake in Energoprojekt before the transaction.
The custodian unit increased its stake in Energorpojekt to 5.176% from 1.743% on January 31 which caused a serious concern among the shareholders of the company. The shares that changed hands in the two sessions were purchased by investors hidden behind joint accounts and without any block deals, which means that the transactions represent a large-scale manipulation, Energoprojekt said back then.
In February, Energoprojekt said it plans to repurchase shares equal to up to 2% of own capital following recent fluctuations in its price on the Belgrade bourse. Energoprojekt said it will buy back up to 218,620 shares out of the total 10,931,929 trading on the stock market, in order to avoid market turmoil and direct damage.
Energoprojekt lost 2.89% on the Belgrade stock market on Thursday and closed at 1,410 dinars.