SOFIA (Bulgaria), September 28 (SeeNews) – Bulgaria's Economic and Investment Bank (EIBank) said on Friday Belgian banking and insurance group KBC has bought 75% of its shares for 295 million euro ($418 million).
“KBC and the shareholders in Economic and Investment Bank (Tsvetelina Borislavova and Novator investment fund set up by Icelandic investor Thor Bjorgolfsson)
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signed an agreement for the acquisition," EIBank said in a statement to the Bulgarian Stock Exchange.
KBC and Borislavova have also signed a partnership agreement, under which she will keep a 22.3% stake in the EIBank and will be the KBC's partner on the Bulgarian banking market. KBC will make a buy-out bid for the remaining 2.7% of the bank’s shares, which are traded on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, the statement said.
EIBank was the ninth largest bank by assets in Bulgaria at end-July. It reported a 20.6% year-on-year fall in net profit for the first half of 2007 to 16.9 million levs.
Shares in EIBank last traded at 131.6 levs on Thursday, down 3.2% from the previous close.