Yesterday, Luka Rijeka’s share price surged by 4.35%, after the Company announced that it received information from a foreign Company on their intention to publish a voluntary takeover bid for its shares.

The Company in question is called Zentralschweizerische Investment Holding AG (Central Swiss Investment Holding Ltd.), a Swiss Holding Company. According to the published document, this Company’s business operations include offering services in holding and advisory segments, including functions such as acquiring, holding, and managing investments. Even though some of the more important details are yet to be announced (such as the takeover bid price), there are some interesting tidbits that can be seen in the published document.

Firstly, the Takeover Company currently owns no shares in Luka Rijeka, and they stated that their intention is to gather at least 51% of the share in the Company. If we looked at the current shareholder structure of Luka Rijeka, the largest shareholder is effectively the Croatian Government through CERP (Center for Restructuring and Sale), at 25.02%, followed by OT Logistics, a Polish Company which also attempted to takeover Luka Rijeka back in 2017, and are currently holding 24.98%. After them, we have a mix of custody accounts, as well as institutional investors in the form of pension funds. After the announcement of the news, Luka Rijeka’s share price surged by 4.35%.

If it is to be believed that the takeover Company is willing to acquire at least 51%, the premium that they would have to pay would have to be quite high, but currently, it would only be speculation to say what it would be exactly. More developments will follow as more details start to be known, the first of which will be the announcement by the regulator (HANFA) of the approval of the voluntary takeover bid.

Luka Rijeka share price (2015 – 2023 YTD, EUR)

Source: Bloomberg, InterCapital Research