Goldman Sachs Group Acquires 64.496 Percent of Arenaturist Shares

The company W2005/Dvadeset osam d.o.o., based in Zagreb and part of the American Goldman Sachs Group, has informed the Zagreb Stock Exchange that it concluded a binding agreement to purchase 64.496 percent of the shares of the Pula hotel company Arenaturist at the end of last week.

According to the announcement transmitted by the Zagreb Stock Exchange, the mentioned company concluded this agreement on July 27 with the previous owners of Arenaturist, the Luxembourg companies Tacana and Granito S.A., and the Italian company Piovesana Holding S.P.A. This essentially means that Goldman Sachs Group has acquired a majority stake in Arenaturist, following which, as stated in the announcement transmitted by the Zagreb Stock Exchange, W2005/Dvadeset osam d.o.o. will submit a request for approval of a public offer to the Croatian Financial Services Supervisory Agency (HANFA) within the prescribed period, in accordance with the Croatian Takeover Act.
W2005/Dvadeset osam d.o.o. has also concluded a binding agreement with the companies Pinamar Holding AS and Istria Investimenti S.p.A. for the purchase of a majority stake in the companies Arenaturist Zlatne Stijene d.o.o., Arenaturist hotels hospitality and travel agency d.o.o., and Arenaturist tourist resorts d.o.o.

At the same time, trading in Arenaturist shares was temporarily suspended on the Stock Exchange today due to a price increase above the daily limit. Trading resumed after 1 PM, when the price of the share was 648.99 kuna, reaching 678 kuna in the next half hour. At the end of last week, the price of Arenaturist shares on the Zagreb Stock Exchange was 581 kuna. Goldman Sachs Group publicly expressed its interest in purchasing shares of Arenaturist in early July this year, about 15 days after W2005/Dvadeset osam d.o.o. submitted a notification of intent to the Competition Protection Agency (AZTN) for the implementation of concentration. The AZTN Council assessed this concentration as permissible in mid-July, stating that it does not restrict or distort market competition in the relevant market in Croatia.

Goldman Sachs Group is present in Croatia through the companies Linde Viličari Hrvatska d.o.o. and Still Viličar d.o.o., while W2005/Dvadeset Osam d.o.o. was registered in March this year for a range of activities, including real estate operations, management activities of holding companies, and commercial mediation for providing tourist services. The Zagreb Stock Exchange also published the financial report of Arenaturist for the first half of this year today, which shows that the company ended the first half of the year with a loss of 23.2 million kuna, which is a 13 percent lower loss compared to the same period last year. Last year, Arenaturist ended with a net profit of nearly 21 million kuna, which is a 27 percent increase compared to the end of 2005. (H)