ZAGREB, November 8, 2018 – The Restructuring and Sale Centre (CERP) steering board has accepted the binding offer of the Zagreb-based PND Strategija company for the purchase of a 68.94% stake in the Dubrovnik-based Hotels Maestral company at the price of 153.5 million kuna, which is 26.7 million more than the asking price, according to a press release issued on the Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE) on Thursday.
The short press release reads that the CERP steering board made this decision two days ago, on 6 November.
The CERP received three binding offers, and apart from PND Strategija, also bidding for Hoteli Maestral were the Czech companies J&T IB Capital Markets and Eco Investment, which offered 145.9 million kuna and 141.07 million kuna respectively.
In August, CERP issued a public call for binding offers for the purchase of 355,520 shares (68.94 percent) in Hoteli Maestral at a starting price of 126.8 million kuna. It said then that the main factor in selecting the most favourable offer would be the value of the bid.
Hoteli Maestral is Croatia’s last large hotel company majority-owned by the state. Last year, it operated at a profit for the fifth year in a row, generating a net profit of 4.1 million kuna, 7% up from 2016.
The company includes five hotels – Uvala, Splendid, Komodor, Vis and Adriatic – as well as the Adriatic Rooms pavilion, with 473 rooms and 933 beds on aggregate.
In the first nine months of this year, Hoteli Maestral’s profit was 11.58 million kuna, 3% down from the corresponding period of last year.
Ministry says tender for sale of Maestral hotel company equal for all bidders
Responding to media reports that Czech Ambassador Vladimir Zavazal wrote to state institutions to warn that Croatian bidders were being favoured, the State Assets Ministry said recently that the tender for the state’s stake in the Hoteli Maestral company was equal for all bidders.
A few weeks ago the ministry was asked by Hina if it had received Zavazal’s letter in which he expressed suspicion that Czech investors would be short-changed in relation to Croatian companies and said that one Croatian bidder had submitted incomplete documentation.
According to the media, Zavazal says in the letter that when the offers were opened, one Czech bidder found that PND Strategija failed to submit financial statements for 2016 and 2017 but the State Assets Ministry declared its offer complete and valid.
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