November 22 (SeeNews) - Shares in Serbia’s top insurer Dunav Osiguranje shed over 10% on Thursday, after losing more than 8.0%l a day earlier, and brokers said low investor interest in the sale of the country’s second-largest insurer DDOR has affected Dunav.
Shares in Dunav Osiguranje fell 10.41% on the Belgrade Stock Exchange (BELEX) on Thursday, closing at 8,200 dinars ($150/101 euro). The stock closed at 10,550 dinars on Monday.
“It is a consequence of what has happened with the offer from DDOR,” the head of Belgrade's Tezoro brokerage, Zoran Djerkovic, told SeeNews.
Italy's Fondaria submitted the sole bid in the tender for the sale of 83.3% of DDOR by the deadline on Monday. Serbian government officials said they will decide in five days' time whether to cancel the tender or launch negotiations with the sole bidder. Market watchers said the fact that only one investor has placed a bid indicates that at the moment insurance is not as attractive as anticipated.
Thirteen international insurers have initially shown interest in the sale.
“The capital value is now being compared to the offer placed for DDOR, which is rumoured to be near 200 million euro,” Djerkovic added. “This is at least twice less than expected. I don’t think the government will accept.”
Dunav Osiguranje’s current market capitalisation is 2.125 billion dinars as the free float of the company is 5.4%.
Last year DDOR’s net profit soared to 732.2 million dinars from 79.8 million dinars in 2005. Its 2006 revenue rose 27.8% to 15.1 billion dinars.
(1 euro = 81.2084 Serbian dinars)