February 27 (SeeNews) - Serbia's government signed an agreement for the sale of its 83.23% stake in the capital of Komercijalna Banka [BEL:KMBN] to Slovenia's largest lender Nova Ljubljanska Banka [LJE:NLBR], it said on Thursday.
The state-owned shares in Komercijalna Banka were sold for a price of 387.02 million euro, subject to a 2% annual interest rate between January 1, 2020, and the closing of the transaction, the government said in a statement.
You can subscribe to our M&A newsletter here
Komercijalna Banka's existing shareholders will also receive a dividend equal to 50% of 2019 net income, which will allow the Serbian government to generate an additional income of about 31 million euro, it said.
The purchase price implies a valuation of 465 million euro for 100% of Komercijalna Banka's ordinary share capital, representing a multiple of 0.77x of the bank's consolidated shareholders’ equity as at June 30, 2019, and a multiple of approximately six times the estimated earnings for 2019, NLB said in a separate statement.
"As a result of the transaction, NLB’s market share in Serbia will increase to over 12.1% by total assets, making NLB the third-largest banking group in the country with a very unique position of one of leading banks in all markets of Group’s presence. NLB’s operations in Serbia will be by far the largest outside of Slovenia, underlining the meaning of the respective transaction for the regional systemic financial institution," the CEO of NLB, Blaz Brodnjak, said.
Komercijalna Banka will add more than 770,000 active retail clients and the largest branch network in the country with 203 branches to NLB’s existing operations in Serbia. Komercijalna Banka’s subsidiaries in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro will also complement NLB’s existing operations in those markets, the Slovenian lender noted.
"We believe that in the case of financial services in the open market a private owner can be a better owner that the state. NLB is a serious bank with a clear strategy and vision, and at the same time it is the only regional financial institution with listed GDRs on the London Stock Exchange. We are very pleased with the process which has been transparently and successfully completed," Serbian finance minister Sinisa Mali said.
The finance ministry said in December it has received three binding bids inits tender for privatisation of Komercijalna Banka within the set deadline. According to local media reports, the bids were placed by Serbia's AIK Banka [BEL:AIKB], NLB, and Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI).
Komercijalna Banka AD Skopje is among the biggest banks in SEE. You can download our SEE Top 100 ranking
here or subscribe to our free Top 100 newsletter
here