February 6 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria’s United Bulgarian Bank (UBB), majority owned by Belgium's KBC Group, on Tuesday announced the merger of CIBANK, a wholly-owned Bulgarian subsidiary of the KBC Group, into UBB has been finalized.
The reorganization of CIBANK through merger into UBB has been officially entered into Bulgaria's Commercial Register following the receipt of the needed permit from Bulgaria's central bank on Monday, UBB said in a statement.
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"From this date onwards, all rights and obligations of CIBANK have been transferred to United Bulgarian Bank [...] by which the process of CIBANK’s merger into UBB has been finalized."
As a result of the merger the clients of CIBANK become clients of UBB, the bank added.
After the merger, UBB becomes one of the largest banks in Bulgaria, with assets exceeding 11 billion levs, the bank noted.
According to the latest data available from the Bulgaria's central bank, the merger will create the third largest bank by assets in the country after UniCredit Bulbank and DSK Bank.
The newly formed bank is focused on servicing individuals and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), UBB said.
CIBANK and UBB are expected to fully complete merging their banking processes by the end of 2018, the CEO of both banks and country manager for KBC, Petar Andronov, told SeeNews in November.
In October, the two Bulgarian lenders signed an agreement under which UBB will absorb CIBANK. Under the terms of the agreement, CIBANK shares will be converted into shares in UBB at a ratio of 1:0.78419, CIBANK said in a filing to the country’s commercial register at the time.
In 2007, KBC Group acquired 75% of CIBANK, and in 2010 increased its shareholding interest to 100%. In June 2017, KBC Group completed the acquisition of UBB and leasing company Interlease from National Bank of Greece for a total consideration of 610 million euro.
After the merger of CIBANK into UBB, twenty-one banks and five branches of foreign banks operate in Bulgaria.
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