ZAGREB (Croatia), October 2 (SeeNews) – Croatian commercial bank Varazdinska Banka (Vaba), which owns 3.81% of smaller local bank Slatniska, will launch due diligence in it, Slatinska said on Tuesday.
“[...] the beginning of a process of due diligence in Slatinska Banka d.d. Slatina has been agreed with representatives of potential investors Varazdinska Banka d.d. Varazdin,” Slatinska said in a statement to the Zagreb Stock Exchange. It did not elaborate.
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The two banks have said that the recent acquisition of the minority stake in Slatinska is the first step of a strategic partnership between them. Officials of the two banks were not imediately available to comment.
The largest shareholder in Slatinska is Societe Generale-Splitska Banka with 12.36%, under a custodian account.
Vaba and Slatinska ranked 24th and 25th by assets, respectively, at the end of June among the 33 commercial banks operating in Croatia.
Vaba plans to move to the most transparent tier of the Zagreb bourse this autumn and in the longer term it plans to transform itself from a regional bank active in northern Croatia into a bank operating nationwide.
Vaba has some 480 shareholders. The biggest among them are Croatian holding company Fima Validus with 33.75%, Dutch investment fund Balkan Sector Equity Fund with 19.04% and domestic financial group Fima with 10.98%.
Vaba’s shares closed at 471 kuna ($91.3/64.5 euro), down 1.87%, and Slatinska stock gained 1.76% to 449 kuna closing on the Zagreb bourse on Tuesday.
(1 euro = 7.3037 Croatian kuna)