Ahead of the announcement of the privatization tender, Croatia osiguranje submitted an offer to purchase shares of the Slovenian insurer Pozavarovalnica Sava.
The Slovenians have begun to recapitalize, and the largest domestic insurer intends to acquire a 25% ownership stake. Sava needs to recapitalize with 55 million euros by issuing new shares valued at seven euros. With this decision, Krešimir Starčević, the CEO of Croatia osiguranje, is certainly trying to increase the value of his company ahead of the inevitable privatization, in which two fairly certain competitors are already known: the domestic Adris group, managed by Ante Vlahović, and the Polish insurance giant PZU group, led by Andrzej Klesyk.
Although none of the interested parties want to disclose how much they are willing to ‘cash out’ for control over Croatia osiguranje, it can be assumed that a majority ownership stake will require a little more than one billion kuna. The average price of a Croatia osiguranje share on the Zagreb Stock Exchange in the last three months has been around 7000 kuna, which means that the company’s total market value was slightly over two billion kuna. Of course, bidders are expected to offer a premium over the market price in the takeover, which is why it will be very interesting to follow the battle for Croatia in the autumn.
The Poles do not hide how much they want to enter the Croatian market, which would also serve as a platform for regional expansion. Klesyk revealed to Croatian journalists in Warsaw last week that the entire business strategy of his company depends on the successful acquisition of Croatia osiguranje. For PZU, this is a matter of life or death at this moment, as no larger acquisition in the insurance sector can be carried out in the region east of Berlin and west of Moscow. In a low start ahead of privatization, Klesyk did not want to disclose how much he is willing to offer, but he stated that he could raise the money for acquiring a majority stake in PZU in just a few days. The Poles would agree to a minority stake in Croatia osiguranje in the short term, but in the long term, they want control.
