OT Logistics raises stake in Luka Rijeka, sells part of shares to Polish International Development Fund
The OT Logistics company announced on December 29, 2017, it has undertaken to sell, within 10 days, 8.75% shares in the Croatian port operator Luka Rijeka to Fundusz Ekspansji Zagranicznej FIZ (Polish International Development Fund) managed by PFR TFI. The transaction value amounts to about PLN 33 million. OT Logistics will still have control over 50.56% shares in Luka Rijeka owing to an agreement with other shareholders.
The planned transaction results from contracts entered previously by OT Logistics and the Fund managed by PFR TFI, regarding cooperation during the acquisition of Luka Rijeka shares. The contract provides for restrictions regarding disposal and encumbrance of Luka Rijeka shares by both parties for 7 years. Once the transaction is executed, OT Logistics will hold 26.51% shares of Luka Rijeka directly, and together with Croatian pension funds Allianz ZB d.o.o. and Erste d.o.o., with which the company entered into a cooperation agreement, will maintain control over 50.56% of Luka Rijeka’s share capital.
“In 2016 we concluded a contract with Fundusz Ekspansji Zagranicznej FIZ (Polish International Development Fund) managed by PFR TFI. Thanks to this fact we now sell 8.75% shares in Luka Rijeka. We retrieve almost 33 million zlotys invested in Luka Rijeka shares, but at the same time, due to an agreement with other shareholders, we maintain control over the Croatian company. The Adriatic port remains our strategic asset and we have ambitious plans to use it as a spot through which freight from Northern Europe will go to Africa, Middle East and Asia,” Zbigniew Nowik, President of the Management board of OT Logistics, says.
“According to the Strategy for Responsible Development, international expansion is a chance for Polish economy. Polish companies prove they can repeat their local successes abroad. OT Logistics is a good example of how a Polish market leader may become one of Europe’s biggest carriers engaged in inland navigation,” Ewa Małyszko, President of PFR TFI managing Fundusz Ekspansji Zagranicznej (Polish International Development Fund), says.
In September 2017 OT Logistics finalised the additional purchase of almost 12% shares in the Croatian port Luka Rijeka, increasing its holding to 32.56%. As a result of its tender offer for
Luka Rijeka shares, completed in December, OT Logistics acquired additional 2.7% shares of the Croatian company. Furthermore, an agreement was made with other shareholders of Luka Rijeka – pension funds Allianz ZB d.o.o. and Erste d.o.o. – enabling OT Logistics to take over operational control over the port.
Last year investments of Fundusz Ekspansji Zagranicznej accelerated. In December an agreement was announced regarding an investment project in Lithuania, carried out with Elemental Holding, a listed company operating in recycling and trade in recyclable materials sector. And in November in Edinburgh, Scotland, a modular hotel was opened, owned by Polish Polcom Group. Modules were manufactured in Poland, then carried to Scotland and assembled on the site.
rel (OT Logistics)
