SARAJEVO (Bosnia and Herzegovina), October 20 (SeeNews) – Bosnia's Postbank BH and FIMA Banka will start a merger process from January 1, 2010, local media reported on Tuesday.
The Supervisory Board of Postbank BH will convene on Thursday to schedule a general shareholders’ meeting with a proposal for the merger of the two banks on its agenda, news portal Beta (www.beta.ba) quoted Postbank BH Director General Amir Zukic as saying.
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The shareholders meeting should take place within a month with the merger process expected to get underway in early 2010, Zukic told Beta.
No further details were immediately available.
Sarajevo-based Postbank BH (www.postbankbh.ba) is 57.24%-owned by Dutch-based private equity fund Poteza Adriatic Fund, according to the latest data available on the bank's website. Small shareholders control a combined 40.19%.
At the end of last year, the biggest shareholders in FIMA Banka (www.fimabanka.ba), also based in Sarajevo, were equity manager FIMA Validus, part of Croatia's FIMA Group, with 41.46%, followed by FIMA Group with 17.6%, Hypo Alpe-Adria Bank Mostar with 11.83%, the bank said its 2008 report.
Twenty-nine banks operate in Bosnia and Herzegovina.