Serbian Confectionery Firm Bambi-Banat Buys Back 3.0% of Capital To Curb Further Price Fall

Bambi-Banat will buy up to 3.0% of its 420,678 shares at a market price on the Belgrade Stock Exchange (BELEX) aiming to prevent a bigger damage to the company caused by the current market crisis, the company said in a filing to BELEX.

Bambi-Banat stock closed up 5.44% at 11,000 dinars ($179/136 euro) on Tuesday. Its shares have lost half of their price since the beginning of the year as the Belgrade market was hit by the global financial crisis.

Bambi-Banat already owns 6.5% of its own capital. It is 59.6%-owned by Danube Foods Group, part of UK-based New World Value Fund, owned and managed by UK-based Salford.

Danube Foods Group is the largest investor in Serbia's dairy sector, controlling the two biggest dairy companies in the country – Imlek, another BELEX blue chip, and Mlekara Subotica.

Danube Foods Group also runs juice bottler Knjaz Milos in Serbia. The group is a major investor in the dairy sector in Serbia's neighbours Bosnia and Macedonia.

(1 euro = 81.1199 dinars)