ZAGREB (Croatia), August 11 (SeeNews) – Slovenian blue-chip lender Nova Kreditna Banka Maribor (NKBM) is interested in acquiring its Serbian majority state-owned peer Credy Banka, Croatian media reported on Tuesday.
NKBM's supervisory board is expected to take a decision by the end of August, online news outlet Limun (www.limun.hr) reported, quoting Serbian news agency Beta.
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Credy Banka, 55%-owned by the state and based in Kragujevac, in central Serbia, was previously the bank of Serbian car maker Zastava.
NKBM first indicated its interest after Italy's Fiat set up a strategic partnership with Zastava and announced plans for investments of 750 million euro ($1.061 billion) in their joint business, Limun said.
In September 2008 Serbia and Fiat formed a joint venture company for the manufacturing of Fiat cars in Kragujevac.
Credy Banka had total assets worth 7.9 billion dinars ($119.1 million/84.2 million euro) at the end of June, ranking it as the 28th largest out of 34 lenders operating in Serbia.
Credy Banka shares gained 12.58% to 5.066 dinars on the Belgrade Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
NKBM shares closed up 1.79% at 11.95 euro on the Ljubljana bourse.
(1 euro=93.8534 dinars)