Along with experiencing the bad investment climate this year, the Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE) has been under the added negative pressure from its own stock holders for weeks.

All kinds of statements found their way to the press. The conflicts between various groups of stock holders resulted in a story that a certain number of them want to sell their stocks. The public already had an opportunity to even hear the names of the potential buyers and that Mr. Marijan Palić (Auctor Securities) has been given authorization to negotiate the sale in their name. Along with the claim that a group of brokerage companies interested in selling the ZSE stocks plans to make the initial offer to interested buyers, Poslovni Dnevnik found out that there is a second group of stock holders that held an informal meeting on Monday with the goal to set a plan of forming a Croatian consortium that will offer to buy out ZSE stocks. This initiative is in the early stages and those familiar with the meeting do not wish to discuss it in more detail. They are equally unwilling to explain another important initiative, which is the inclusion of the ZSE stocks on the ZSE. Roberto Motušić, the President of the ZSE Board, says that he is ‘’not familiar with the meeting and the plans of the leading stockholders and supervisors connected to the consortium’’ and ‘’even if he does know something as a President he does not want to nor can he comment’’. Regarding the second initiative, he was more willing to comment. ‘’This idea was brought up on the Supervisory Board on several occasions last year, but the legal conditions did not exist at that time. Such conditions were created this year, since the Law on Capital Markets now allows non-members to be stockholders, which was previously limited only to brokerage companies,’’ says Motušić. He added that the current management has the task of defining new ZSE rules and this initiative is one of the topics. In short, the ZSE stockholders should in due time be able to test the value of their share on the ZSE itself. As far as the issue of the Croatian consortium is concerned, the idea imposed itself with the recent increase in disputes between stockholder groups and it has been estimated that more concrete conclusions and plans must come of it as the interest of various stock holders are very different and becoming a burden to the business development.
(pd)

facts

Shareholders
A portion of the 35 present shareholders of the ZSE see the financial capital as a possible means of increasing their individual liquidity during difficult times. The largest players on the local capital markets who are shareholders of the ZSE have long-term interests, which include ambitious goals that require extra organizational skills and technical and financial capabilities during the upcoming.

Crisis
It will be difficult for the present number of brokers to satisfy them even if the crisis lasts for a relatively short period, with the present nervousness and accusations being partially accounted to the objectively weak prospects of the approximately 50 brokerages. Namely, the largest ZSE shareholder, President of the Board of Hita Exchange, Ivan Tadin, accused the ZSE leadership of nontransparency and concealing shareholder data.