July 23 (SeeNews) - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects that the privatisation of Komercijalna Banka [BEL:KMBN] will be conducted in a transparent manner, the IMF resident representative in Serbia, Sebastian Sosa, said
"At this stage, potential investors are doing due diligence, they have signed non-disclosure agreements, and we are all looking forward to the opening of non-binding bids later this year," Sosa said in a video file posted on the website of news agency Tanjug on Monday.
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The IMF expects the privatisation process of Komercijalna Banka to be successful, Sosa added.
Last month, Serbia's finance ministry said it has received six valid expressions of interest in the sale of Komercijalna Banka and invited qualified investors to take part in the next stage of the tendering process. The finance ministry invited expressions of interest for the purchase of at least 50.1% shareholding interest in Komercijalna Banka, including the entire state-owned stake, which then stood at 41.75%. Meanwhile, the Serbian government bought a 6.8% stake in Komercijalna from DEG and Swedfund for a total of 5.1 billion dinars ($48.3 million/ 42.5 million euro) on the Belgrade Stock Exchange.
Blue-chip Komercijalna Banka was the third largest lender in Serbia in terms of assets at the end of 2018, behind Banca Intesa and UniCredit Bank Srbija, according to Serbian central bank figures.
(1 euro = 117.740 dinars)