Macedonia’s Investbanka To Raise 403 Mln Denars (6.6 Mln Euro) in Capital Hike

Investbanka will issue 43,530 new ordinary shares with a par value of 2,670 denars each that it will place with its majority owner, Austria’s Steiermärkische Bank und Sparkassen, at 9,258 denars per share for a total  of 403,000,740 denars, the bank said in a statement.

Steiermärkische Bank und Sparkassen owns nearly 96% of Investbanka which it acquired for 38.5 million euro ($49.5 millon) earlier this year.

Investbanka’s equity capital totalled 677.5 million denars ($14.2 million/11.03 million euro) at the end of 2007, divided into 254,362 shares.

The bank’s shares had not traded on the Macedonian Stock Exchange by 1015 GMT on Friday. They closed flat at 9,000 denars on Thursday.

Macedonia's central bank ranked Investbanka among the country's medium-sized banks with total assets of 105 million euro at the end of last year. Investbanka, founded in 1992, operates 23 branches and has 170 employees.

Steiermärkische also has a significant presence in other countries in southeastern Europe: Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia, with a total of 245 offices and 3,500 employees.

(1 euro = 61.1294 Macedonian denars)