The government announced its decision to sell 15 percent of INA's regular shares, with a potential option to sell an additional two percent of shares in a public tender, as determined by government decisions adopted on 14 September and 13 October 2006 and published in the Official Gazette.
The government decisions enable Croatian nationals to have the right of pre-emptive buying and special benefits for the purchase of regular shares.
The two decisions also envisage the possibility of participation in the public tender, but without the right of pre-emptive buying, for domestic legal persons and foreign investors in Croatia, as well as for Croatian nationals buying amounts that exceed the amounts which entail pre-emptive buying rights and special benefits.
Along with the public tender, also expected is an institutional tender, in which regular INA shares can be sold further in the form of shares and Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs) to international institutional investors outside Croatia.
The public tender will be linked with the proposal to list regular INA shares on the Zagreb Stock Exchange, while the institutional tender will be linked with the proposal to list GDRs, which represent regular shares, with the relevant British agency and on the London Stock Exchange.
The proposed tender is expected to cover 1.5 million existing regular shares.
The Croatian government, as the selling shareholder, is expected to give the keepers of the register of bids the possibility to buy and further sell up to 200,000 regular shares. This option can be used within 30 days from the announcement of the selling price.
There will be no issuing of new INA shares in the tender.
Merrill Lynch International acts as the only global coordinator and together with RZB Group, which is represented by Raiffeisen Centrobank AG Vienna and Raiffeisenbank Austria d.d. Zagreb, is the keeper of the register of bids.
The government's announcement does not represent an offer or an invitation to submit bids for the stated securities, the government statement said.
Officials at the government's public relations office said that the statement was intended for distribution in Croatia, while an identical statement in English had been sent to relevant foreign institutions.