State collected 43.5m EUR from Agrobanka through stocks

Agrobanka from Belgrade announced on August 10 that it had finished turning debt of 43.5m EUR to Republic of Serbia into stocks, which state used to increase the share in the capital of that bank from 8 to 20%.

According to the announcement, 98,445 new stocks have been deposited on the account of the state. These stocks were taken over for 3.5 billion RSD, that is, at price of 36,000 RSD per stock, which means that Agrobanka repaid the loan to International Bank for Rehabilitation and Development (IBRD).

Member of Executive Board of Agrobanka, Nikola Aranđelović, estimated that the solution to 25-year-old problem represented great exoneration to the bank, since many months of uncertainty concerning when and how that problem will be solved made influence on price and sale of stocks.

- During that time, Agrobanka was under the measures of the National Bank of Serbia due to obligation to find a solution as soon as possible. After these measures were cancelled, the operations of that bank improved and number of clients grows daily - he estimated.

At the beginning of July, Government of Serbia signed the contract with Agrobanka on turning part of debt into stocks, with the bank's obligation to buy these stocks at price of 40,600 RSD if the state fails to sell them on stock exchange within one year.

On that occasion, Minister of Finance, Mirko Cvetković, said that the state would be selling stocks of Agrobanka on the stock exchange only if the price had been higher than 40,600 RSD. The price of stock of Agrobanka on Belgrade Stock Exchange currently amounts to 35,467 RSD. The capital of Agrobanke is worth 201m EUR, and the bank has 60,000 clients, 110 offices and 800 employees.