March 31 (SeeNews) - Austria's Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank International AG plans to sell its business in the countries of the former Yugoslavia after disposing of its operations at home and in Italy, Bloomberg reported.
The banking group may start selling its domestic units and its Italian unit in 2011, Bloomberg quoted the CEO of the nationalised lender, Gottwald Kranebitter, as saying on Wednesday.
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Kranebitter, 47, was installed last March after the Austrian government took over the bank.
Bloomberg also quoted him as saying he revamped the bank in 2010, creating three “sound” units, which he plans to sell over the next years, and a “wind-down unit,” comprising toxic assets and businesses he plans to give up.
The disposals at home and in Italy will be followed by the sale of Hypo Alpe’s biggest unit, which comprises its banks in Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bloomberg reported.
Austria nationalised Hypo Alpe in December 2009 to avert the bank’s collapse after bad debts increased during the financial crisis and former owners, including Bayerische Landesbank, withdrew their support.
Kranebitter said the bank, which posted a net loss of 1.06 billion euro ($1.5 billion) in 2010, aims to break even this year as it expects bad-debt provisions to fall by two-thirds to less than 400 million euro.
($=0.7038 euro)