(Bloomberg) -- Austrian landlord Immofinanz AG’s majority owner is boosting its investment after a 54% slump since September.
CPI Property Group SA bought about €12.7 million ($13.3 million) worth of long certificates backed by Immofinanz shares, according to a regulatory filing Monday. The notification was made because Immofinanz Co-Chief Executive Officer Pavel Mechura and Supervisory Board Deputy-Chair Martin Matula also hold managerial positions at CPI.
The certificates carry a knock-out clause at about €10, which would be triggered should the underlying stock fall another 33%.
To be sure, a decline to those levels would mean reaching lows seen during the global financial crisis. But Immofinanz’s stock price did come close last year as majority owner Czech billionaire Radovan Vitek sought to shore up capital by putting billions of euros in property for sale.
The wager comes after a bout of heightened volatility for Immofinanz stocks, in part related to bets on a squeeze-out earlier this year. They’ve stabilized around the €15 level in the past six weeks.
Both managers were installed at Immofinanz by Vitek’s CPI Property Group. Immofinanz completed a squeeze out of its former Viennese rival S Immo earlier this month, and is now in discussions with its parent for merger options.
(Corrects buyer in headline and first two paragraphs, removes description of knock-out clause in third.)
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