U.S. investment fund Morgan Stanley has completely liquidated its position in Belgrade-based Komercijalna Bank after being part of its ownership structure for less than two years.
This investor used to have a stake of about 0.7% in Komercijalna Bank, and what is interesting is that it acquired most of these shares in late April 2009 when their price was RSD 18,000 per share. That was a kind of introduction to the recovery and the first big leap of the market after a two-year strong declining trend. The buyers of the last tranche of shares in Morgan’s portfolio were the investment fund of Austrian Erste Bank and Swedish East Capital, which bought the shares of Komercijalna Bank again after a break of nearly four months. Other large buyers of the shares of Komercijalna Banka since the beginning of the year are foreign portfolio investors, primarily global index funds behind the custody accounts of Austrian and German banks.
In addition to Dunav Osiguranje, Morgan Stanley was the only bigger seller of the shares of Komercijalna Banka and the generator of its big liquidity in the same period. Since the beginning of the year, the shares of Komercijalna Banka have grown by 19.9%, while the average daily turnover amounted to RSD 18.4 million per day, almost 20 times more than in 2010.
With the latest price of RSD 31,234 per share, the market capitalization of Komercijalna Banka amounts to RSD 27.2 billion (EUR 264.6 million). By the end of 2012, Komercijalna Banka should be recapitalized by the state, which would almost double the number of its common shares and the value of its market capitalization. The gross profit of this bank in 2009 amounted to RSD 2 billion and this largest state-controlled bank is expected to turn the profit of about RSD 2.5 billion for the year 2010.
Source Ekapija.com
