Serbia's Government To Change Stakes in Local Banks by End-2009 - Media

The government holds the biggest stakes in Srpska Banka AD Beograd (96.52%), Privredna Banka AD Pancevo (92.98%), Banka Postanska Stedionica AD (63.72%) and Kredi Banka (55.17%), daily Blic (www.blic.rs) said.

It quoted Finance Ministry state secretary, Slobodan Ilic, as saying that the government is in talks with Slovenia’s Nova Kreditna banka Maribor d. d. (NKBM), which was interested in the acquisition of  Kragujevac-based Kredi Banka.

The government plans to merge Privredna Banka Pancevo with Postanska Stedionica, while Srpska Banka will become a local development bank, Blic quoted Ilic as saying.

A capital hike is planned for Komercijalna Banka AD Beograd and Cacanska Banka AD Cacak.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), German financial institution DEG and Swedish risk capital company, Swedfund, are the potential investors in the planned capital hike of 120 million euro ($179 million) in Komercijalna Banka, Blic reported.

The biggest shareholder in Komercijalna is the government of Serbia with a stake of 42.6%. The EBRD owned 25% as of end-2007, while the remainder was in the hands of minority shareholders, according to the latest figures available from the Belgrade Stock Exchange.

($ = 0.6686 euro)