October 26 (SeeNews) - Croatia's agency for deposit insurance and bank resolution, DAB, said it extended the deadline for filing binding bids in the process for the sale of its 100% stake in Croatia Banka until October 30.
The agency received a request from interested bidders to extend the October 23 deadline by seven days and approved it, DAB said in a statement on Friday.
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Last month, state news agency Hina reported that DAB received four letters of interest from potential buyers of Croatia Banka, with two of the bidders coming from Europe, one from the U.S. and one from Hong Kong.
In July, DAB invited letters of interest in the sale of 4.746 million shares of 100 kuna ($15.7/13.2 euro) in par value each, representing 100% of Croatia Banka's capital.
In September, DAB said interested investors can carry out due diligence at Croatia Banka until October 9, after which DAB planned to prepare a shortlist and invite binding offers by October 16. The best bid was expected to be selected by November 6 and the deal to be finalised by November 20.
Croatia Banka reported a loss of 25 million kuna in 2019, as costs and reservations rose to 37 million kuna from 22 million kuna in 2018, DAB said earlier. The bank's total assets fell to 1.97 billion kuna at the end of 2019, from 2.31 billion kuna a year earlier. The net interest margin rose to 2.12% last year from 1.54% in 2018.
According to latest central bank data, Croatia Banka was the 15th largest bank in terms of assets among 20 lenders active in the country at the end of June.
(1 euro = 7.57760 kuna)