Raiffeisenbank Bulgaria Raises Capital 33.6% to 278.5 Mln Euro

Raiffeisenbank Bulgaria has issued 136,908,100 shares with a par value of 1.0 lev each following a decision of its owner aiming to support the bank's dynamic development on the local market, the Bulgarian bank said in a statement.

"At the end of June, the bank's capital reached over 9.0% of the total capital of the banking sector, compared to 4.0% at the end of 2004," Raiffeisenbank Bulgaria chairman Momchil Andreev said in the statement.

This is the second time the bank raises its capital in the past couple of months. It increased it by 50 million euro in July.

Raiffeisenbank Bulgaria, which ranked the fourth largest bank in Bulgaria in terms of assets at the end of July, posted a 87% year-on-year rise in first-half net profit to 81.3 million levs.

Twenty-four locally-registered banks and the branches of five foreign banks operate in the country of 7.6 million people.

(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)