Holding Putishta, the road construction company majority owned by Bulgarian business tycoon Vassil Bozhkov, is set to increase its equity by 71 times, the company said in a filing with Investor.bg Bulletin.

Shareholders will vote on the proposal to hike the equity from 0.43 million leva to 30.67 million leva at the general meeting on June 27.

The capital increase will entail the issue of 30.24 million shares at a par value of one lev each. The hike will be restricted to current shareholders, who will receive 71 new shares for each share they own in the company.

This will be the Putishta's second share split in six months - in late 2007, existing shareholders were granted 25 new shares at the expense of reserves.

The move is expected to improve the free float of Holding Patishta shares, even though it would lower the price at which the stock is traded. The company's shares traded 14.5 per cent higher at 964.27 leva on May 13 after the news were announced.