July 26 (SeeNews) - Montenegrin power utility Elektroprivreda Crne Gore (EPCG) [MNG:EPCG] said it plans to propose to its shareholders to repurchase 13,052,876 own shares from Italian utility A2A.
The repurchase of the shares will be carried out at a price of 3.95754012 euro ($4.6) apiece through a block deal, EPCG said in a bourse filing posted on the website of the Montenegro Stock Exchange last week.
The capital of EPCG is divided into 131,229,055 shares, according to bourse data.
The deadline for the buyback of the shares is 30 days after the approval of the transaction by the shareholders' meeting of EPCG, which will be carried out on August 20.
In May, Montenegro’s government said it has increased its shareholding interest in EPCG to 70.16% from 57.01% by acquiring 17,252,885 shares in the company from A2A for a total of 68.9 million euro.
Montenegro's government said in July 2016 it received an offer from A2A for the sale of the company's 41.7% shareholding interest in EPCG. The government will pay 250 million euro for the shares held by A2A in seven annual installments so as not to burden the state budget, the government said back then.
In April, Montenegro said it decided to change its acquisition plans and up its stake by 13.15% this month, as it adopted a draft contract on the execution of the put option.
Under the contract, the Montenegrin government will pay 39.9 million euro to purchase 8,826,438 shares in EPCG from A2A in May 2019. The remaining shares will be repurchased in two transactions by EPCG in July 2018 and July 2019, the government said.
($ = 0.8527 euro)