PKB withdrawn from the stock exchange – Shares still owned by the City

PKB remains in the ownership of the City of Belgrade, it was said for Tanjug at the City Management. They added that it would remain so until the decision was reached about the transfer of PKB from the City to the Republic of Serbia, which should be preceded by the approval of the Assembly of the City and the Government of Serbia.

Such a decision has not yet been made, they point out at the City Management and say that the General Meeting of PKB hasn’t, as the media have reported, reached the decision to transfer the shares owned by the City of Belgrade to the Republic of Serbia, but the decision on delisting, i.e. withdrawing of the shares from the stock exchange.

According to them, the decision was made in order to make the operations as efficient as possible and to reduce the expenses.

– The decision on delisting was adopted in order to facilitate the operations of PKB above all, because, if a company lists at the stock exchange, the legal deadlines for convening the General Meeting sessions are much longer, and there are also additional expenses as a result of a business entity being structured that way – they clarified and noted that a lot had been done in the previous two years to optimize PKB’s operations and to reduce the expenses.

This was confirmed for Tanjug by the director of PKB, Dragisa Petrovic, who pointed out that the General Meeting had reached the decision on delisting for the sole purpose of further rationalization of operational expenses. It was the decision on the withdrawal of shares that was reached, not the decision on the transfer, which is outside the authority of the General Meeting anyway.

Petrovic said that it was up to the City, not PKB, to decide what to do with the shares next, that is, whether to perhaps transfer them to the Republic of Serbia.

They say at the City Management that the issue of transferring PKB from the City to the Republic is certainly one of the options considered.

– Such an option has been considered, because the law prescribes that only the state, and not the local self-government, can establish a strategic partnership. This is, then, a consideration of the possibility of expanding the options regarding privatization models – they say.

The president of the Independent Union of PKB, Nikola Lazic, believes that the transfer of ownership would benefit the employees, which is why the unions support it, whereas the president of the Agriculture Committee at the Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, Milija Miletic, says that PKB is a corporation which Serbia needs and that he is sure that the state will prove to be a good host.

PKB Korporacija a.d. Beograd

Grad Beograd

PKB

City of Belgrade

PKB shares

Dragisa Petrovic

General Meeting of PKB

Independent Union of PKB

Nikola Lazic

Milija Miletic