AAA Auto Drops Most in 18 Months on Delisting Plan: Prague Mover

AAA Auto Group NV tumbled the most in 18 months after the chain of used-car dealerships in central Europe announced plans to delist its shares.

The stock slumped as much as 31 percent, its biggest intraday retreat since August 2011, and traded down 17 percent to 20.50 koruna by 10:11 a.m. in Prague. Turnover at more than 183,000 shares so far today compares with 275,133 for the whole of January, the bourse’s data compiled by Bloomberg show.

AAA Auto, the smallest member of the 13-strong PX index with a 0.1 percent weighting, proposed to remove all of its 67.8 million shares from trading in Prague and Budapest in an invitation to an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting on March 29 published on the company’s website late yesterday. Founder and former Chief Executive Officer Anthony Denny, who owns about 77 percent of the shares, said six months ago he plans to sell his stake. The stock surged 41 percent last year.

“The withdrawal of shares from trading limits the ability of shareholders to realize the value of their shares,” analysts led by Milan Vanicek at J&T Banka AS in Prague wrote in a report today.

To contact the reporter on this story: Krystof Chamonikolas in Prague at kchamonikola@bloomberg.net

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