October 22 (SeeNews) - Slovenia's Nova Kreditna Banka Maribor (NKBM) said it has received the green light to take part in raising the capital of local insurer Zavarovalnica Maribor, in which it holds a 49.96% stake.
"The Supervisory Board gave its consent to the proposal of the Management Board on the participation of Nova KBM d.d. in the capital increase of Zavarovalnica Maribor d.d., thereby - as the main shareholder - exercising its right to participate in the first round of the capital increase," NKBM said in a statement to the Ljubljana Stock Exchange (LJSE) on Wednesday.
The bank's management board believes that with Zavarovalnica Maribor being one of the key members of the NKBM group it is the principal responsibility of NKBM "to ensure successful performance of the insurance company also in the future."
"Supervisory Board members are convinced that this capital injection is of strategic importance for the Nova KBM Group, and a further step in carrying out long-term strategic objectives of the Group," the statement said.
No further details were immediately available.
Last month, Croatian online news outlet Limun (www.limun.hr) reported that Zavarovalnica Maribor's supervisory board had authorised an increase in the share capital of the company by 14.2 million euro ($21.3 million).
According to data from the website of Slovenian reinsurer Sava Re, the company owns 45.49% of Zavarovalnica Maribor whose subscribed capital totals 28.4 million euro on consolidated basis.
In September, Sava Re said in a LJSE filing that its supervisory board had decided to back a possible takeover of Zavarovalnica Maribor.
At the end of 2008, Zavarovalnica Maribor (www.zav-mb.si) ranked as Slovenia's third largest insurer with a market share of 12.47% in terms of premium income, trailing Triglav and Adriatic Slovenica, data of the Slovenian Insurance Association showed.
NKBM shares were traded 4.77% down at 13.57 euro ($20.3) on the LJSE by 1151 GMT on Thursday.
($=0.6677 euro)
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