City of Belgrade ready to take over shares of BAS

Chairman of the Belgrade City Assembly Aleksandar Antic stated that the city of Belgrade was ready to acquire 40% of shares of the Belgrade Bas Station (BAS) that were owned by the state.

- The city of Belgrade will enter the procedure of acquisition of BAS' shares, primarily by purchasing the state's stake in the company, but not before consulting the management of BAS and respecting the interest of other shareholders - said Antic.

Antic said that the city of Belgrade was ready to take on the responsibility for BAS' functioning, taking into account the strategic importance of the city traffic component and the fact that over 3.5 million passengers were using the services of the Belgrade Bas Station every year.

According to his words, the public interest will in that way be best protected when having in mind that the location of the bus station will be changed, which may lead to certain confusions when it comes to the ownership of building land in the location of the current bus station.

Belgrade-based Kruna-komerc made a counter-bid today for purchase of shares of the Belgrade Bus Station (BAS).

The decision on acquisition of BAS' shares by the city of Belgrade was today backed by Nezavisnost trade union, which is strongly against the offer submitted by Banja Luka-based Damjan.

State Secretary in the Ministry of Economy Nebojsa Ciric stated that the Government of Serbia would not accept Damjan`s offer and added that the city of Belgrade was interested in taking over a 40% stake in BAS, owned by the state, as well as shares of minor shareholders, in order to become the majority owner of the bus station.

Last week, Nezavisnost trade union of BAS warned minor shareholders, the owners of 60% of the company, not to accept Damjan`s offer because the offered price of RSD 760 per share was low.

The company Damjan launched a bid for takeover of 40.31% of BAS' shares at the price of RSD 760 per share in late 2010, and the bid will be open until January 18.

In 2009, BAS registered a revenue of over 1 billion dinars and a net profit of 1.3 million dinars.

Trading in the shares of BAS on the Belgrade Stock Exchange started in May 2007. The current price of that security is RSD 780, the maximum price over the last year was RSD 1,080, while the minimum price amounted to RSD 630.

Kompanija "Damjan", koja se bavi hotelijerstvom, navela je da je sredstva za kupovinu akcija BAS-a obezbedila iz bankarskog kredita.

The Managing Board of BAS assessed the offer made by Damjan as unacceptable and added that the offered price was 48.32% lower than the accounting value of shares of that company.

The opinion of the BAS management is that Damjan has no experience in the primary field of work of BAS, which puts in danger the success, safety and continuity of operations of the Belgrade bus transportation company, as well as fulfillment of development plans.

BAS Beogradska autobuska stanica a.d. Beograd

Grad Beograd

Ministarstvo privrede Republike Srbije

Damjan d.o.o. Banja Luka

BAS

Aleksandar Antic

Nezavisnost trade union

Nebojsa Ciric