June 13 (SeeNews) - Serbian infrastructure minister Zorana Mihajlovic said on Tuesday the country is examining a potential attempt at a hostile takeover of blue-chip civil engineering group Energoprojekt [BEL:ENHL].
Energoprojekt is of paramount importance for the Serbian construction and transport sectors and such companies have to be protected, Mihajlovic said in a video file posted on the website of Serbian news agency Tanjug.
You can subscribe to our M&A newsletter here
"I believe that the institutions work well and we will make sure that everything is legal," Mihajlovic told reporters in Tanjug's video file.
On Friday, in an interview for Serbian daily Blic, the managing director of Energoprojekt, Vladimir Milovanovic, said the company has already filed complaints about an alleged hostile takeover attempt with Serbia's Securities Commission, the Commission for Protection of Competition and the Belgrade Commercial Court on the basis of the existing doubts and proofs.
Serbian company Napred Razvoj, owned by entrepreneur Dobroslav Bojovic, has attempted to provoke a drop in the share price of the civil engineering group through a mass sale of shares, Milovanovic noted.
In the opinion of Milovanovic, Bojovic is interested in taking control of the Blok 26 land plot in the centre of Belgrade, which is owned by Energoprojekt.
In January, Energoprojekt said Erste Bank Custody took control of 5.176% of its capital on January 31 and February 2. Erste Bank Custody controlled a 1.743% stake in Energoprojekt before the transaction. 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.
As a result, Energoprojekt said on February 14 it plans to repurchase shares equal to up to 2% of own capital following the fluctuations in its price caused by the Erste Bank Custody's deals. On March 23, Energoprojekt reported that Erste Bank Custody cut its stake in the company to 4.443%.
Last week Energoprojekt said in a bourse filing that its shareholders' meeting scheduled for June 8 was cancelled due to lack of quorum and postponed to June 16.
Energoprojekt lost 0.87% on the Belgrade stock market on Tuesday and closed at 1,483 dinars.
(1 euro = 122.432 dinars)