SOFIA (Bulgaria), December 15 (SeeNews) – Bulgaria's Supreme Administrative Court adjourned until February 11, 2015 a hearing on an appeal against the recent delicensing of Corporate Commercial Bank [BUL:6C9], local media reported on Monday.
On November 6, the central bank revoked the licence of Corporate Commercial Bank (Corpbank) after placing the lender under conservatorship in late June. The central bank said at the time it would seek the bank's insolvency after it was found to have a negative own capital of 3.75 billion levs ($2.4 billion/1.9 billion euro) as of September 3.
The central bank's decision to revoke Corpbank's licence is being challenged by the bank's majority shareholder Bromak, owned by businessman Tsvetan Vasilev, and another Corpbank shareholder - the State General Reserve Fund of the Sultanate of Oman, as well as two other physical persons.
The court refused to constitute as a party to the proceedings some 20 small depositors with Corpbank, the state-run Bulgarian National Radio reported. According to the court, the depositors have alternative means to protect their interests.
EU laws guarantee bank deposits of up to 100,000 euro. The Bulgarian Deposit Insurance Fund started repaying guaranteed deposits at Corpbank on December 4.
Bromak holds 50.66% of the voting rights of Corpbank, and the Omani fund, through its subsidiary Bulgarian Acquisition Company II, Luxembourg, holds 30.354% of the voting rights, according to the bank’s latest financial report. A unit of Russia's VTB owned 9.07% of the bank at end-September.
(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)