February 3 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's Alfa Finance Holding said on Wednesday it has frozen its plan to set up a bank in the country jointly with Austria's HYPO Investmentbank due to economic difficulties.
“The bank project has been put on hold due to the difficult economic situation but our partnership with HYPO Investmentbank continues in the field of investment banking with participation in joint projects and financing directly provided from Austria”, Alfa Finance Communication and PR Officer Boyan Bakardjiev told SeeNews.
In November 2008 Bulgaria's financial regulator allowed HYPO Investmentbank to acquire a stake in local Financia Group, part of Alfa Finance Holding, saying the acquisition was aimed at supporting the development of Financia Group by establishing a Bulgarian-based commercial bank which would be involved in financing the public sector, infrastructure and real estate projects, and in corporate banking.
Alfa Finance Holding (www.alfafinance.bg) provides financial services in Bulgaria and in neighbouring Macedonia. It is also active in real estate management, telecoms, construction and logistics. Through its majority-owned mineral extracting and processing company Kaolin, the group is active in Serbia, Albania, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine. It also owns a solar panels factory. The group employs around 3,000 people.