March 21 (SeeNews) - Slovenia has received seven binding bids for the privatisation of state-owned lender Abanka, including an offer from Serbia's AIK Banka, Ljubljana-based media reported.
In addition to AIK Banka, the list of bidders includes Hungary's OTP Group, Austria's Erste Bank, as well as US investment funds Apollo and Blackstone, daily Delo reported on Wednesday.
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The deadline for placing binding bids expired on March 19, Delo said.
"All participants in the sale process signed an agreement on non-disclosure of information, so I cannot comment on the possible submission of the offer to Abanka," Delo quoted the CEO of AIK Banka, Jelena Galic, as saying on Wednesday during a news conference on the acquisition of a majority stake in another Slovenian bank, Gorenjska Banka, by the Serbian lender.
Last week, Slovenian media reported that OTP placed the best bid for Slovenia's third-largest lender Abanka, offering to pay about 300 million euro ($341 million), a bid that is much lower than Abanka's 578.9 million euro equity and the price range of 347 million euro to 463 million euro estimated by analysts polled by Invest Slovenia last year.
Slovenia's state holding company SDH invited in October expressions of interest for the sale of 100% shareholding interest in Abanka. In 2013, the Slovenian government had to step in and recapitalise Abanka with 348 million euro whilst also seizing control of the bank. In October 2015, Abanka and its state-owned peer Banka Celje merged. Banka Celje ceased to exist as an independent legal entity. Abanka as the acquiring company and universal legal successor entered all legal relations concerning its peer.
($ = 0.87799 euro)
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