E-Star Drops as Company Exits BUX on Bankruptcy: Budapest Mover

E-Star Alternativ Nyrt. (ESTAR) hit a record low as the Budapest Stock Exchange dropped the Hungarian energy supplier from the benchmark BUX index after the company filed for bankruptcy.

The shares tumbled 15 percent to 296 forint by the end of trading in Budapest. The stock dived 93 percent this year as the company failed to redeem bonds that matured in October and struggled to buy back the securities as well as bonds due 2014 and later.

The bourse said it excluded E-Star from the BUX basket from today after the company filed for bankruptcy, citing its inability to meet payment obligations and opening the right of its creditors to initiate liquidation proceedings. The company plans to reach an agreement with its creditors under the bankruptcy procedure to ensure future operation, E-Star said in a statement last week.

“The main question is what deal will be reached during the bankruptcy procedure,” Akos Kuti, a Budapest-based analyst at broker Equilor Befektetesi Zrt., wrote in an e-mailed report.

To contact the reporter on this story: Andras Gergely in Budapest at agergely@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Wojciech Moskwa at wmoskwa@bloomberg.net