	nordbanken to auction its fermenta shares sweden s nordbanken banking group said it would sell the mln b free shares deposited as loan collateral by fermenta ab s frms st founder and former chief executive refaat el sayed and it planned to buy them up itself the bank said the sale by public auction on march was because of a debtor s inability to repay an overdue loan the b free shares closed at crowns on the bourse s unofficial list down from a peak of in january nordbanken said it did not exclude accepting a suitable bid for the shares although it expected to buy them back itself the statement said the sale did not represent any withdrawal from nordbanken s undertakings towards the fermenta group and that it had been sanctioned by the other main shareholders nordbanken is fermenta s third largest creditor with loans of mln crowns it was one of the four swedish banks which last month agreed to advance the group mln crowns to solve its immediate liquidity problems together with two other main shareholders it also advanced fermenta an additional mln crowns until a new equity issue could be made fermenta is due to hold an extraordinary shareholders meeting on tuesday to approve the planned equity issue nordbanken had to make a provision against a mln crown loan to el sayed in its results fermenta s new management originally hoped to raise mln crowns through the new one for four rights issue and an extra mln from an issue to nordbanken another major creditor and shareholder gotabanken and the group s new majority owner industrivarden ab the share price was to be crowns but there has been doubt over the plans since the stock fell below this level this week after fermenta s former chairman kjell brandstrom said the company was in a much worse state than he thought reuter 
