March 2 (SeeNews) - Slovenia's Nova Ljubljanska Banka [LJSE:NLBR] (NLB) has acquired the local subsidiary of Russia’s Sberbank to support the Slovenian central bank in maintaining the financial stability of the banking sector, it said.
The transaction presents the next step in banking sector consolidation in Slovenia and is fully aligned with the strategic ambitions of NLB to improve its market position and will at the same time provide certainty for Sberbank’s customers, NLB said in a filing with the Ljubljana Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
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On Monday, Sberbank Slovenia said it will close its branches until March 2, while withdrawals and payments with cards issued by the lender will be limited to 400 euro daily to reduce the excessive outflow of deposits from the bank after certain Russian lenders were excluded from the SWIFT international payments system over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. As a result, the Slovenian central bank excluded Sberbank Slovenia from the real-time gross settlement system TARGET2 and the BIPS payment system for domestic and instant credit transfers.
"By completing this transaction, Sberbank Slovenia will get a strong and committed owner, who will, with its capital and professional background, ensure uninterrupted business for clients. There is, therefore, no need for them to worry about any of their deposits, other assets, or transactions in these tense and uncertain times anymore," NLB CEO Blaz Brodnjak said on Tuesday.
In a separate statement on Tuesday, the Single Resolution Board (SRB) of the European Central Bank (ECB) said Sberbank Slovenia has resumed its operations after it was sold to NLB.
Sberbank had a 4% market share in Slovenia at the end of 2020. The transaction will add approximately 1.0 billion euro ($1.1 billion) of risk-weighted assets to NLB Group's existing 12.7 billion euro of risk-weighted assets at the end of 2021.
On February 28, the SRB determined that the subsidiaries of Sberbank in Slovenia and Croatia are failing or likely to fail following a rapid and significant deterioration of the banking group’s liquidity situation as a result of Western sanctions on Russian banks.
($ = 0.88039 euro)
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