"PLIVA" EQUITY OFFER WINS EMERGING MARKET EQUITY DEAL OF 1998 TITLE

ZAGREB, Dec 29 (Hina) - According to the respectable British magazine "Corporate Finance", the sale of shares of Croatia's leading pharmaceutical company "Pliva" has won the title of the emerging market equity deal of the year 1998 for East Europe, Asia and South America. Pliva's equity deal is followed by the privatisation of the Czech company "Telecom" and the Hungarian oil company "Mol", Privatisation Minister Milan Kovac said at Tuesday's regular press conference in Zagreb. The second public offer of Pliva shares, which was completed before this summer, included 2.64 million worth of ordinary shares, with a yield amounting to US$219 million. The price of shares for physical entities was 529.18 kuna per share, with discounts for Croatian citizens (10%) and Pliva employees (12%). The price per share, according to the Global Depository Receipt (GDR), was US$16.60. Pliva has achieved the best deal according to all indicators, Kovac said adding that criteria for the title included a good business record, political and economic stability of a country, transparency of transactions etc. The global coordinators of the deal were Daiwa Europe bank and Merill Lynch International, with Privredna Banka Zagreb and Zagrebacka Banka as coordinators in Croatia. The head of the Finance Ministry's department for cash management and public debt, Ivan Mijatovic, said that the budgetary revenue from privatisation in 1998 amounted to some US$190 million. In 1999, the revenue is expected to amount to $634 million. The money will be gathered through the privatisation of public companies and will be directed into capital expenditure, infrastructure and reconstruction, Mijatovic said. (hina) rml