April 9 (SeeNews) - Serbia's Gastrans has increased its capital by 16.3 billion dinars ($155.9 million/138.2 million euro) to 22.8 billion dinars via a monetary contribution by its sole shareholder, Swiss-based South Stream Serbia, official documents show.
The company's board of directors approved the decision for the capital increase on February 22 and the capital hike was completed on February 26, according to documents entered into Serbia's commercial register.
Last month, Gastrans invited binding bids for booking capacity for transit of natural gas via a planned extension of Russian Gazporom's TurkStream transmission pipeline on the country's territory that will connect Bulgaria and Hungary. The total volume of available annual capacity is 395.2 GWh/day at the link with Bulgaria,124.2 GWh/day at exit points in Serbia and 271.02 GWh/day at the interconnection with Hungary.
The news that the company has been recapitalised is a confirmation that the project will be carried out, Serbian daily Politika quoted the president of the country's natural gas association, Vojislav Vuletic, as saying on Sunday.
Gazprom owns a 51% stake in South Stream Serbia, while state-owned Srbijagas holds the remaining 49%, according to Gazprom data.
(1 euro = 117.903 dinars)