September 7 (SeeNews) - Serbia’s Komercijalna Banka [BEL:KMBN] plans to acquire some of the largest foreign-owned banks in the country or the greatest part of their portfolios to bolster positions ahead of its forthcoming privatisation, Tanjug reported on Wednesday.
Komercijalna Banka plans to increase its share on the domestic market and further boost its value ahead of the planned sale, the Serbian news agency said.
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Shareholders in Komercijalna discussed options for the strengthening of the bank ahead of its privatisation during a recent visit of a delegation of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to Belgrade.
EBRD president Suma Chakrabarti said during the visit that a successful sale of the bank is of great importance for Serbia because it will send a very strong positive signal to the market.
"I hope that we will privatise the bank as planned. We are working hard and the process is ongoing", Chakrabarti told Tanjug at the time.
The Serbian government owns 41.7% of Komercijalna Banka, the EBRD has a stake of 24.4% and the IFC Capitalization Fund owns 10.15%. DEG and SwedFund own 4.595% and 2.3%, respectively.
Komercijalna Banka turned to a pre-tax loss of 2.6 billion dinars ($23.7 million/21.1 million euro) for the first half of 2016 from a 696 million dinars profit a year earlier.
(1 euro=123.315 Serbian dianars)