Danubius Hotel and Spa Company was formed on 1 April 1972, in order
to build and operate spa-hotels. The 100% state owned company began its
work with Grand Hotel Margitsziget, Helikon Hotel in Keszthely and
Hilton Hotel (in development phase).
Now Danubius is a
100% privatised company and operates two groups of hotels (Danubius
Hotels and Danubius Beta Hotels), and has the majority ownership of
Thermal Hotel Helia PLC (99,94%) and of HungarHotels (99,76%). See it
at the page 7.
Owned 100% by SPA
The
sale of Danubius was included in the First Privatisation Program
advertised after the change of regime in 1990. The first step was the
transformation into a joint stock company from July 31, 1991 with HUF
8,000,000,000 registered capital. The SPA owned 100% of the shares.
Privatised in 12%
After
the transformation the SPA gave shares first to the Budapest and the
local municipalities. A total of HUF 1,247,559 shares have been
distributed to the Municipalities for the lands used by Danubius Hotels.
In
1991 the SPA prepared the sale of the company at the domestic and
foreign stock exchanges with the help of foreign advisories.
The
orders of the government in Oct. 1991 - rising of the interest rates on
bank loans, the withdrawal of the tax allowances, the question of the
ownership of Hotel Gellért - put the company into a difficult position
in connection with the judgement of the stock exchange, so they had to
look for other ways to privatisation.
Privatised in 44,3%
The
main aim was to sell the Company as a whole (as a hotel chain) but the
Company had to pay the expensive long-term loans. Therefore we had to
sell our shareholder interest in Casinos Hungary; we made an agreement
with the SPA to assume the loans and released Danubius from the joint
and several liability of Thermal Hotel Aquincum in return for Hotel
Gellért; we had to sell our non-profitable units (e.g. restaurants in
Keszthely and Hévíz, our interest in Golf Course in Bük).
After
this business rationalization the preparation work for home stock
exchange began in the fall of 1992, and as a first step, they decided
the public offer of 2,000,000 pieces of shares for Hungarian individual
investors as well as 400,000 pieces of shares for Danubius employees in
a private placement.
The Term 'Individual investor' means
that he may only purchase up to HUF 5 million at very favourable
financing conditions, namely: Danubius shares have been purchased with
10% cash, 40% interest free loan from the SPA, 50% E-loan. The SPA loan
was due and payable not later than June 15, 1993 in one sum. The term
of the E-loan will be six years to be paid back in six annual
instalments at the valid interest rates.
The flotation
was planned for 21 days, but the share of HUF 2 billion was purchased
by 9,033 Hungarian investors in 5 working days. In the meantime
Danubius employees purchased the possible 400,000 shares for HUF 500
per share.
Privatised in 64,3%
For
a stable current price th Hungarian Investors who left the shares they
purchased on deposit until Dec. 18, 1993 received one Bonus Share for
every second shares from the SPA on January 15, 1994.
Privatised in 90%
On
28 January, 1994 Creditanstalt Rt. (Brokerage firm) sold 2,074,672
pieces of shares from the SPA's and 305,328 pieces of shares from the
Danubius' ownership to 3 American Mutual Funds on the Budapest Sock
Exchange.
Privatised in 97%
On
the first week of May, the SPA changed 560.000 pieces of Danubius
Shares (from its 10% ownership rest) directly for compensation coupons.
Privatised in 100%
On
June, 1994 the SPA sold the last 3% to a hungarian Ltd. (Váltó és
Vagyonkezelo Kft.), with this the privatisation of the company was
finished.
