The traditional gathering of the Croatian financial industry, the Zagreb Stock Exchange conference, was opened this morning by Roberto Motušić, director of the Zagreb Stock Exchange, and Deputy Prime Minister Damir Polančec. – Last year at the conference, we assumed that this would be the year of IPOs, and how accurate our assumption was, you know yourselves – said Motušić.
The year marked by the acquisition of Pliva, the IPO of INA, the IPO of T-HT, and a multitude of smaller IPOs was described by Motušić as exceptionally successful for the financial industry. One of the key events in the period between the two conferences, Motušić sees as the merger of the Varaždin Stock Exchange with the Zagreb Stock Exchange, and as an important goal yet to be achieved in the next period, he highlighted the education of new investors participating in the securities market for the first time.
Polančec took this opportunity to defend the government’s decisions made regarding the IPO of T-HT. – The development of the Zagreb Stock Exchange and the securities market is one of the strategic goals of this government, and with the IPO, of course, our goal was also to offer citizens a profit – said Polančec. To those who believe that the T-HT share was undervalued, Polančec advised them to consider the share price at the time when 16 percent was sold to D-Telekom and emphasized that it was one of the most successful IPOs in Europe.
In addition, he announced the restructuring of the Croatian Privatization Fund within a year. The fund is expected to be restructured as a closed-end investment fund with a public offering, and of course, Polančec expects the completion of such restructuring in the first year of the next term of his government. (T. B.)
