The Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina at its 11th session adopted the Information regarding the status of Alta banka AD Beograd and accepted the offer of Alta Pay Group d.o.o. Belgrade from April 4, 2023 for the sale of 10,352 shares in accordance with the offer.
At the session, the Ministry of Finance and Treasury was tasked to, as a registered shareholder in Alta banka d.d. on behalf of Bosnia and Herzegovina, carry out the procedure for the sale of shares and submit a report to the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina after the completion of the procedure.
“By selling these shares, Bosnia and Herzegovina would earn 340,770.25 euros,” the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina announced.
These are the shares of the former SFRY in the Yugoslav Bank for International Economic Cooperation (JUBMES), which were distributed by the Board for the Distribution of Financial Assets and Liabilities of the former SFRY in Annex C of the Agreement on Succession Issues back in 2006. At that time, 533 shares with a value of 100,000 euros or 15.5 percent of the total of 3,440 shares belonged to BiH. JUMBES banka later changed its name to Alta banka AD Beograd.
“Given that Bosnia and Herzegovina is a small shareholder and cannot influence the decision-making processes, it was concluded that the procedure for the sale of shares should be initiated,” stated the Council of Ministers of BiH.
Capital reveals that the BiH Council of Ministers approved the sale at a price four times lower than the book value.
According to that decision, the shares, whose nominal value at that time was 85, and book value as high as 119 euros, were sold at a price of around 32 euros.
According to the explanations of the stock exchange experts, the sale of shares at four times lower than the book price is not unusual, but they point out that the explanation that this was done because BiH, as a small shareholder, cannot influence the decision-making does not hold water.
“By purchasing the shares of the Ministry of Finance of BiH, Alta Pay Group will have about 88.3 percent of the shares, and it will lack 1.7 percent to a total of 90 percent, which by law will completely squeeze out all other small shareholders, since Alta Pay Group’s takeover offer has already been opened share at a price of 32 euros per share,” explains the interlocutor.
After the Ministry of Finance of BiH sold its shares, the largest shareholders of Alta Bank after Alta Pay Group are the Ministry of Finance of the Federation of BiH with 1.99 percent and the Ministry of Finance of North Macedonia with 1.73 percent of shares.
“This means that by purchasing the shares of either of those two ministries, Alta Pay Group would acquire a package of over 90 percent of the shares, which would completely squeeze out the small shareholders, because they would have to accept the offer to take over Alta Pay Group and sell their actions”, explains the Capital source.
According to him, it is very likely that one of the mentioned two ministries will sell their shares at the same price as the Ministry of Finance of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“Months ago, shares of Alta Bank were traded, with 15-20 shares changing hands at a price of around 30 euros. This is how it was achieved that this is the average weighted price of the shares traded in the last six months,” he explains.
He adds that this was directly in favor of the majority owners, because the ground was thus prepared for a complete takeover, i.e. the acquisition of a 90 percent package, after which the small shareholders will have to sell their shares to the majority owner at four times the book price.
“The Council of Ministers of BiH took the biggest step in that regard by selling its shares at that price,” he says.
He points out that banking circles in Belgrade are speculating that Serbian Finance Minister Siniša Mali is behind Alta Bank, adding that no one has presented evidence for this.
“But if it is true that Mali, who is one of the closest associates of the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, is behind Alta Bank, then it is quite certain that the Ministry of Finance of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is still managed by SNSD official Zoran Tegeltija, will hasten to implement the decision of the Council of Ministers. Bosnia and Herzegovina will not benefit from that sale, because 340,000 euros is no amount for the state, and it would not have benefited excessively even if it had sold the shares at book value. However, it certainly means a lot for the majority owners of the bank,” he concluded.
