The compulsory acquisition of minority shares in Energoprojekt Holding has formally restarted, moving one of Serbia’s best-known engineering groups closer to full ownership concentration and potentially further reducing an already shallow domestic equity market.
Napred Razvoj and related entities initiated the compulsory acquisition process after exceeding the 90% ownership threshold, giving them the legal basis to squeeze out the remaining minority shareholders.
Energoprojekt published formal notice of the renewed procedure through the Belgrade Stock Exchange on September 29.
The transaction follows the state’s earlier disposal of a large shareholding, which helped push the controlling group above the threshold required for compulsory acquisition.
The process is commercially significant because Energoprojekt is one of the better-known companies historically associated with Serbia’s public capital market.
Its removal from meaningful minority ownership would reinforce a longer-running trend: listed companies are disappearing faster than substantial new issuers are arriving.
Legal backdrop adds governance dimension
The squeeze-out also carries an unusual legal history.
An Administrative Court ruling previously annulled a Securities Commission decision connected with approval of the original 2017 takeover process.
That adds a corporate-governance dimension to what might otherwise be treated as a routine final ownership consolidation.
The current compulsory acquisition has resumed despite that earlier court decision, meaning minority-shareholder treatment and regulatory procedure remain relevant to how the case is viewed.
For investors, legal certainty matters almost as much as valuation.
A capital market cannot attract long-term minority capital if investors believe controlling shareholders can consolidate ownership through procedures that remain subject to lengthy legal dispute.
Energoprojekt therefore has significance beyond one company.
Serbia’s public-equity universe keeps narrowing
The broader market problem is liquidity.
Serbia has a relatively developed banking system but a shallow equity market.
Many large companies remain privately held, state owned or foreign controlled.
Few sizeable domestic groups use the stock exchange as a regular source of growth capital.
As existing companies leave public markets or lose meaningful free float, trading becomes less attractive for institutional investors.
Lower liquidity then discourages new issuers.
That creates a self-reinforcing cycle.
Fewer companies produce less trading.
Less trading makes listings less attractive.
And companies increasingly rely on bank loans, private transactions or strategic investors instead of public equity.
Energoprojekt once represented different model
Energoprojekt historically represented a more traditional public-company model.
The group developed engineering, construction and consulting businesses across Serbia and international markets and was widely recognised as one of the country’s major industrial and infrastructure names.
Its gradual ownership concentration therefore carries symbolic significance.
The company is moving from a structure with state and minority participation towards effectively private control.
That may simplify decision-making for the controlling shareholder.
But it also removes another sizeable name from the investable universe available to domestic portfolio investors.
Weak results sharpen restructuring question
The ownership shift comes as Energoprojekt is also facing weaker operating performance.
First-half revenue and profitability deteriorated sharply, while domestic sales fell heavily.
That creates an important strategic question for the controlling shareholder.
Full ownership would provide more freedom to restructure assets, sell non-core businesses, change capital allocation or reorganise subsidiaries without the same minority-shareholder constraints.
From a corporate perspective, that can be attractive.
From a capital-market perspective, it reduces transparency and public participation.
The two interests are not necessarily aligned.
State exit raises another question
The state’s earlier disposal of its stake also illustrates Serbia’s changing approach to corporate ownership.
Selling state holdings can improve efficiency and reduce political involvement in commercial companies.
But if the buyer is an existing controlling shareholder rather than a broad public offering, privatisation does not necessarily deepen the capital market.
It can have the opposite effect.
Ownership becomes more concentrated while the stock exchange loses free float.
That makes the structure of future state disposals important.
If Serbia wants stronger public markets, selling stakes through transparent offerings to multiple investors could have very different consequences from bilateral sales that facilitate squeeze-outs.
Capital-market reform faces credibility test
Serbia has been trying to deepen corporate finance through bond-market development, institutional reform and efforts to attract new issuers.
The Energoprojekt case shows how difficult that task remains.
A modern capital market requires more than exchange infrastructure and regulation.
It requires companies large enough to attract investors, meaningful free float, credible minority protections and enough liquidity to allow institutions to enter and exit positions.
Serbia still lacks that scale.
Banks remain the dominant source of corporate finance, while equity markets play only a marginal role in investment funding.
That makes every sizeable listed company disproportionately important.
Energoprojekt becomes market signal
The final squeeze-out may ultimately be straightforward from the controlling shareholder’s perspective.
Its wider meaning is different.
If Energoprojekt effectively disappears from Serbia’s investable public-equity universe, the Belgrade Stock Exchange will lose another historically important corporate name without an equivalent new listing replacing it.
That sharpens the contradiction in Serbia’s financial development.
The country has a large and increasingly sophisticated banking system, but its public equity market continues to shrink.
The Energoprojekt transaction therefore is not only a corporate ownership story.
It is another indicator that Serbia’s capital market remains dominated by delisting, concentration and private control rather than new public-company formation.
