Last week, PBZ CO Pension Fund executed a notable portfolio adjustment, offloading a sizeable block of Koncar shares worth EUR 23,135,450.00 in a transaction that immediately drew market attention. InterCapital Securities, acting as the sole bookrunner and coordinator, once again demonstrated its role as the leading local investment firm in delivering complex equity transactions with precision and market depth.
But what even is an Accelerated Book Building process? Let’s dive in.
Accelerated Book Building is a fast and efficient capital markets mechanism used to place a large block of shares with institutional investors within a very short timeframe, usually one to two days. It can be conducted either as a buy-side or a sell-side transaction.
A sell-side ABB occurs when an existing shareholder, often a fund or strategic investor, wants to dispose of a sizeable stake without putting sustained pressure on the market. The bookrunner opens a brief bidding window, institutional investors submit orders within a predefined price range, and the transaction clears at a single market driven price. Because of the accelerated nature, it is common to see a discount relative to the prevailing market price, which reflects liquidity needs, investor appetite, and the size of the block. This format allows the seller to exit cleanly while preventing disorderly price action.
A buy side ABB typically appears when a company launches a share repurchase initiative and wants to acquire its own shares quickly and efficiently. Instead of buying shares slowly in the open market, the company collects offers from willing sellers and executes a concentrated buyback at a clearing price. Globally, this mechanism helps issuers optimise capital structure, reduce volatility around repurchase programs, and absorb temporary liquidity.
Regardless of side, the mechanics and purpose are the same: ABBs aim to provide fair price discovery, protect market stability, avoid extended overhang, and swiftly reallocate ownership of large blocks of shares. These features make ABBs especially valuable in smaller and less liquid markets, where large transactions executed on screen could distort prices or take weeks to complete.
Končar stock price development (January 1, 2023 – December 5, 2025, EUR)
Source: ZSE, Intercapital Research
In Croatia’s market context, ABBs play an especially positive role. Koncar has been in the spotlight among both investors and the broader public for a long time, and many market experts had anticipated that an ABB would eventually materialize. Seeing it executed by a major fund in a transparent and professional manner further strengthened confidence in the overall market structure. Liquidity is structurally thinner compared to larger European exchanges, meaning that any large selling pressure placed directly on the order book can distort price signals and increase volatility. Regulated pension funds operate under strict portfolio constraints, one of the most important being that no single equity position may exceed 5% of total fund assets. In the case of Končar, this was never a problem in earlier years, but the extraordinary performance of the stock changed everything. With KOEI gaining more than 50 % YTD and more than 500 % in the past three years, funds that simply maintained their original number of shares suddenly began approaching and in some cases exceeding their regulatory limits. Throughout the year, they attempted to control exposure by selling gradually on the open market, yet such selling inevitably exerted visible pressure on the price. Executing a block trade via ABB therefore served multiple purposes: reducing technical selling pressure, providing investors with clean entry points, deepening market liquidity, and avoiding disorderly price action. If PBZ CO had continued selling through the open market, the impact on price would have been unavoidable since the average daily turnover on the Zagreb Stock Exchange in the first eleven months of the year stood at only EUR 2.3m without block trades, meaning that this transaction would have required several weeks of gradual selling, likely triggering potential price correction.
Now to the specifics of the latest Koncar ABB.
Koncar d.d. announced on the Zagreb Stock Exchange the launch of an accelerated book building for the sale of up to 50,000 existing ordinary shares. The price range was set at EUR 640,00 to EUR 720,00 per share, with the book open from 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, 2 December 2025, until 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, 3 December 2025. The potential value of the transaction was up to EUR 36m. The formal notice of the ABB was published on 28 November.
The final placement was executed via block trades on the Zagreb Stock Exchange, where a total of 35,593 shares were sold at a single clearing price of EUR 650,00 per share, amounting to EUR 23,135,450.00. InterCapital Securities acted as sole bookrunner and coordinator, collecting and structuring demand from both domestic and international institutional investors. The final book was broadly balanced, with 56% allocated to domestic institutions and 44% taken up by international investors.
On Wednesday the ABB block at EUR 650 was executed while the market traded around EUR 670, so on Thursday a convergence toward the publicly known block price would normally be expected, yet the usual post block dynamic did not materialise as Koncar closed at EUR 666 with only a mild 0.66% correction after spending most of the session in positive territory, and by Friday, 5 December, the share had already closed higher at EUR 674, indicating no meaningful convergence toward the block level.
Prior to the ABB, PBZ CO managed net assets of approximately EUR 4.385bn and held around 357,870 shares of KOEI, with a market value of roughly EUR 240m. This pushed KOEI to approximately 5.47 % of the entire fund, breaching the legally defined 5 % single issuer ceiling. Through the ABB, PBZ CO sold 35,593 shares, reducing its KOEI exposure to around EUR 216m and bringing the position back below the regulatory roof, with an estimated weight of roughly 4.9 %.
Erste Plavi is similarly positioned, holding about 289,824 KOEI shares with a market value of EUR 194.2m. With a total AUM of approximately EUR 3.87bn, this position represents around 5.01 % of the fund, placing Erste Plavi right at the regulatory boundary. Any further appreciation in KOEI would push the fund above the allowed 5 %, which is why its exposure is closely monitored by both the fund and regulators.
You may also find AZ Pension Fund here, the largest pension fund in Croatia, with more than EUR 8.6bn in assets under management. AZ holds approximately 398,065 KOEI shares with a market value of around EUR 266.7m, representing roughly 3.08 % of the fund. This position sits comfortably below the regulatory threshold and poses no constraint for them, especially considering that AZ is the second largest shareholder of Koncar after Kapitalni fond d.d., the state holding company.
From a market perspective, the ABB delivered exactly what the transaction required: a clean and immediate exit for the seller, removal of persistent technical pressure, and a more diversified and stronger shareholder base. It reinforced confidence in Končar’s equity story by showing that investor demand remains deep even in a volatile environment, while giving institutions an efficient way to build exposure to one of Croatia’s strongest performers. This was a sell-side ABB driven by regulatory alignment as pension funds approached their 5 % limits, illustrating how a properly structured accelerated placement resolves such constraints without destabilising the market.
In short, the Koncar ABB was a textbook example of how a well-structured accelerated placement benefits all sides. The seller achieved orderly execution and restored regulatory compliance, investors gained access to size at fair pricing, and the broader market avoided disruption while gaining incremental liquidity.