According to the statement of Croatian Minister of Tourism yesterday, tourist arrivals in the first 6 months of 2019 grew app. 1.2% YoY while overnights stays grew 2.4% YoY.

This is according to the statistical data tracked by the Croatian Tourist Board that reported in the first six months of 2018 6.4 m tourist arrivals to Croatia and 25.4 m overnight stays. Minster of Tourism has stated yesterday that these figures in the first 6 months of 2019 have amounted to 6.5 m of arrivals and 26 m of overnights. Minister has also added that current bookings for the main seasons are according to expectations and that the government expects from 2% to 3% growth of physical tourism indicators in 2019.

Allianz ZB demands that OT Logistics acquire 2,042,914 shares of Luka Rijeka’s shares through a put option.

A Polish transport, forwarding and logistics operator, OT Logistics released a statement in which they stated that Luka Rijeka’s shareholder Allianz ZB demands from them to acquire 2,042,914 shares of Luka Rijeka’s shares through a put option.

According to the statement, Allianz ZB sent their notice of the right to call the put option regarding Luka Rijeka’s shares based on a shareholder’s agreement signed back in 2017. However, OT Logistics stated that the demand does not have legal force, as earlier on 28 June, it had terminated the above shareholders’ agreement with Allianz ZB, with immediate effect.

As stated in the original release (which can be found here), the cooperation agreement between shareholders has been signed for a period of 7 years and sets out the conditions for cooperation in managing Luka Rijeka as well as in conducting a tender offer for Luka Rijeka shares. The tender was supposed to be announced by OT Logistics. Additionally, the parties agreed for a lock-up on the shares for a period of 1 year and 90 days since the end of the tender offer.

According to the Eurostat data published yesterday unemployment rate in Croatia in May has amounted to 7% and in Slovenia to 4.4%.

Compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate fell in Croatia (from 8.6% to 7%) and in Slovenia (from 5.3% to 4.4%). It is the lowest unemployment rate in the month from the beginning of the year, both for Croatia and Slovenia. EU-28 unemployment figure in May 2019 has amounted to 6.3 %, which is the lowest figure since the start of the EU monthly unemployment series in January 2000.

It was announced yesterday on the Belgrade stock exchange that majority owner of Sojaprotein has increased its shareholding in the company to 12.3 m shares which amounts to 89.09% of shareholding. Victoria Group also announced an intention to publish take over bid for the remaining shares on the Belgrade stock exchange.

Victoria Group has purchased additional 18% of shares of Sojaprotein on the open market on 28 June at RSD 180 per share. Sojaprotein was the most traded share with 3.2 m shares traded and the losing price was also RSD 180. Consequently, Victoria Group also announced an intention to publish take over bid for the remaining shares on the Belgrade stock exchange yesterday. The remaining shares amount to 1.5 m or 10.91% of the total shareholding.

As a reminder, Sojaprotein has at the beginning of March issued a takeover bid for the remaining shares of Sojaprotein that you can read about here. In this takeover bid, Victoria Group was able to purchase only 2.6% of shares. In that event takeover bid was announced at the RSD 180 per share.

Sojaprotein is the largest soybean processing factory in Serbia. Last year, MK Group took over Victoria, after buying out its debts from the banks. After this event, the obligation to announce a takeover bid for its subsidiaries Veterinarski Zavod and Sojaprotein occurred.