BELGRADE (Serbia), November 27 (SeeNews) – Serbia has acquired 34.58% of the ordinary shares in Komercijalna Banka [BEL:KMBN] held by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and IFC Capitalization Fund for a total of 217 million euro ($238.9 million), the Serbian finance ministry said.
After the transaction, Serbia's government owns 83.23% of the ordinary shares of Komercijalna Banka which it will be able to offer for sale under the ongoing process for privatisation of the bank, the finance ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
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The EBRD and IFC Capitalisation Fund activated a put option in the bank's capital after notifying the Serbian government of their intentions on March 26, 2018, the Serbian finance ministry has said.
The transaction follows the acquisition by the Serbian government of 6.89% of Komercijalna's ordinary shares from Swedfund and DEG which was completed on June 26.
Serbia expects to receive binding bids from qualified investors in the tender for the privatisation of Komercijalna Banka by December 2.
In June, Serbia's finance ministry said it received six valid expressions of interest for the purchase of Komercijalna Banka and invited qualified investors to take part in the next stage of the tendering process. The finance ministry had invited expressions of interest for the purchase of at least 50.1% shareholding interest in Komercijalna Banka, including the entire state-owned stake, which stood at 41.75% at the time.
Blue-chip Komercijalna Banka was the third-largest lender in Serbia in terms of assets at the end of 2018, behind Banca Intesa and UniCredit Bank Srbija, according to Serbian central bank figures.
($ = 0.9082 euro)
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