Addiko banka: Price of 20 euros per share disrupts plans for all potential acquirers

Driven by very serious moves from three potential acquirers, the shares of Austrian Addiko Bank on the Vienna Stock Exchange have been trading around twenty euros for a week now. Such a price likely marks the beginning of the end of the possibility for Addiko, along with its subsidiaries in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Montenegro, to significantly change its ownership structure, in which Serbian businessman Miodrag Kostić, through his company Agri Europe Cyprus, holds a leading position with a 9.99 percent stake.

Two months ago, Agri Europe announced a public offer to acquire approximately 17 percent of the ownership stake in Addiko, which would increase Kostić’s previously acquired position as Addiko’s largest shareholder to 26.99 percent. Agri Europe offered bank shareholders 17.5 euros per share, which includes a recently voted dividend of 1.26 euros that has not yet been paid.

At the time of Kostić’s offer announcement, Addiko’s shares were trading at a price of 14 to 15 euros. At that time, another Serbian banker, Davor Macura with his company Alta Pay Group, suddenly entered the game to acquire a 29.59 percent stake in the Austrian bank. In the meantime, he has acquired 9.63 percent of the stake.

As the actions of Serbian bankers have already caused the rise of Addiko’s shares, Nova ljubljanska banka (NLB) also got involved, announcing two weeks ago its intention to acquire the Austrian bank through a public offer worth twenty euros per share, also including the dividend. Unlike Serbian bankers, who strictly ensure they do not exceed thirty percent of the stake in Addiko to avoid having to announce a takeover bid, NLB did not specify how much of the stake in Addiko it wants to acquire, but it aims to acquire as much as possible.

However, as long as all three interested buyers of larger packages of Addiko shares are in the game, the share price is likely to continue to rise, thereby disrupting the plans of all three.