June 16 (SeeNews) - Serbian company Napred Razvoj said on Friday it plans to launch a takeover bid for а 64.68% stake in blue-chip civil engineering group Energoprojekt [BEL:ENHL].
Napred Razvoj, owned by Serbian entrepreneur Dobroslav Bojovic, will target acquisition of 7,070,467 Energoprojekt shares, it said in a filing with the Belgrade Stock Exchange.
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The company plans to launch the takeover bid in cooperation with the companies Napred AD, Montinvest Properties and Jopag AG, which control shareholdings of 0.09%, 5.18% and 5.13% in Energoprojekt, respectively, Napred Razvoj added.
Bojovic himself owns a 0.43% stake in the capital of Energoprojekt.
Napred Razvoj directly controls a 24.49% stake in Energoprojekt. The combined stake of Napred Razvoj, Napred AD, Montinvest Properties, Jopag AG and Bojovic stands at 35.32%, data from the filing shows.
At the end of the first quarter of 2017, the Serbian government was the largest shareholder in Energoprojekt with a 33.58% stake, followed by Napred Razvoj with 22.5%, a custody account at Erste Banka ad Novi Sad with 4.44%, and another custody account at Vojvodjanska banka, with 4.09%. The treasury stock of Energoprojekt stood at 0.89% at the end of March, while the shareholding of Montinvest Properties totalled 0.73%. The remainder was controlled by other minority shareholders.
On Tuesday, Serbian infrastructure minister Zorana Mihajlovic said the country is examining a potential attempt at a hostile takeover of Energoprojekt, given the company's paramount importance for the country's construction and transport sectors.
In an interview for Serbian daily Blic on June 9, the managing director of Energoprojekt, Vladimir Milovanovic, said that Napred Razvoj, supported by Montinvest and Jopag AG, has attempted to provoke a drop in the share price of the civil engineering group through a massive sale of shares. In the opinion of Milovanovic, Bojovic is allegedly interested in taking control of the Blok 26 plot of land in the centre of Belgrade, which is owned by Energoprojekt, Blic said.
Energoprojekt share price fell 6.01% 1,407 dinars as at 1132 CET on Friday on the Belgrade Stock Exchange, bourse data showed.
The BELEX15 lost 7.28 basis points in just ten minutes on Friday, falling to 710.06 from 717.34 between 1050 CET and 1103 CET.