Valamar Riviera Acquires 50.08 Percent of Rab’s Imperial Shares from the State for 261 Million Kuna

The tourism company Valamar Riviera announced that on Tuesday it signed a contract at the Center for Restructuring and Sale (CERP) to acquire 50.08 percent of the shares of the Rab hotel company Imperial and announced that it, along with its partner in this transaction, the AZ fund, will notify about the obligation to publish an offer for the acquisition of the remaining shares in Imperial.

The news of the contract signing was also published on the CERP website, which emphasizes that Valamar will be transferred 318,446 shares of Imperial, which constitute 50.08 percent of the share capital of the largest Rab hotel company, after paying the agreed price of 260.8 million kuna, for which Valamar has a deadline of 30 days.

“By signing this contract, the sale process of another tourism portfolio in majority state ownership has been successfully completed,” CERP stated.

CERP accepted Valamar’s offer to purchase shares of Imperial at the end of July this year, after the final binding round.

Valamar was the only one to submit a binding offer for Imperial, which was then assessed as a ‘win-win’ situation, especially since Valamar entered the privatization process of Imperial together with the AZ company for managing mandatory pension funds to create, as they stated, “new added value for the stakeholders of all three companies through a combination of experience and strength of the leading institutional investor in Croatia and management knowledge, expertise, and top results of the leading company in tourism in Croatia.”

Valamar Riviera reported the signed contract with the Republic of Croatia, the State Agency for the Protection of Deposits and Bank Rehabilitation, the Croatian Pension Insurance Institute, and CERP regarding the purchase of 50.08 percent of Imperial shares via the Zagreb Stock Exchange.

Valamar announced in a statement that upon acquiring the shares of Imperial, it will transfer 10 percent of the shares to the AZ fund, with which it operates jointly concerning Imperial, thereby gaining a dominant influence in the Rab hotel company. “This will enable the exercise of membership rights in the Imperial company with significant influence on operations. In doing so, Valamar will consider using all usual, permitted methods, levers, and tools, with the aim of improving the operations of both Imperial and Valamar Riviera,” the statement said.

Valamar also announced that, in accordance with legal regulations, it will notify about crossing the threshold of 50 percent of voting rights in Imperial and together with AZ will notify about the obligation to publish an offer for acquisition in the manner and under the conditions prescribed by the provisions of the Takeover Act.