Nova Banka a.d. Banja Luka plans to sell up to 1,298,665 shares at an auction to be held at the Banja Luka Stock Exchange.

The auction will take place Dec. 17, and the starting price has been set at 0.70 Bosnian convertible marka per share, with a minimum tick size of 0.01 marka, the bank said Dec. 10.

The bank, which operates in Bosnia and Herzegovina's autonomous entity Republika Srpska, has held two similar transactions earlier in December. In both cases, the shares were acquired by MG Mind, a company owned by local businessman Mladen Milanović Kaja, news portal Capital.ba said Dec. 10. MG Mind has so far spent almost 7 million marka on the purchases and could become the lender's largest shareholder, the news report said.

As of Dec. 6, Nova Banka's largest shareholder was its former head Milan Radović, owning a 7.97% stake, while MG Mind was the second-largest shareholder, with a 7.65% stake, according to information available on the Banja Luka Stock Exchange.

As of Dec. 12, US$1 was equivalent to 1.72 Bosnian convertible marka.