June 24 (SeeNews) - The European Central Bank (ECB) has allowed Serbian lender AIK Banka to take over Slovenian peer Gorenjska Banka, several Serbian media outlets reported without saying how they got this information.
In a response to SeeNews, AIK Banka's press service said it does not want to comment on media reports, neither confirming, nor denying the information.
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"We will make an official statement upon completion and formalisation of the procedure," it told SeeNews in an emailed statement.
In January, AIK Banka, a subsidiary of Serbian vertically-integrated agro-industrial conglomerate MK Group, became the second largest shareholder in Gorenjska Banka with a 13.9% stake by investing almost 13 million euro in a share capital increase, needed by the small Slovenian lender to meet central bank requirements.
In February, MK Group's owner, Miodrag Kostic, said he is interested in boosting the Gorenjska Banka stake.
Serbian media speculates that AIK Banka may become the owner of an about 50% stake in the Kranj-based Slovenian bank.
In September, Slovenia's central bank ordered indebted local conglomerate Sava [LJE:SAVA], which presently owns 37.6% of Gorenjska Banka, to dispose of its stake because it does not have the financial strength to give the bank the support it needs.
Gorenjska Banka was the last of eight lenders that failed Slovenia's stress tests in December 2013 to increase its capital.