Bosnia's Postbank BH, FIMA Banka To Merge – Media

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.

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.