Three Slovenian Brokerage Houses To Merge, Eye Market Leadership at Home, Across Region

The tie-up planned by MedvesekPusnik (MP), Poteza and Publikum will improve the scope of the product offerings and will couple that with higher service quality and security for clients brought about by increased market power and capital, the three brokerage houses said in a joint press release made available to SeeNews on Thursday.

The new financial holding group, comprising a merged management company and a merged stock brokerage business, is expected to officially start operations on January 1, 2010, after the final steps of the tie-up process have been completed, the statement said.

These steps include business permits which the new companies have to obtain from the Securities Market Agency, and entering the merged companies in the commercial register. A new name and corporate design of the company have already been selected and will likely be shown to the public by the end of this year.

Under the new financial group’s strategy the assets of the merged management company will increase from 150 million euro ($221.2 million) in 2009 to 343.7 million in 2014, which means a 21% average annual growth and an increase of that company's market share from 8.7% in 2009 to 9.3% in 2014.

The group's average annual revenue growth is seen at 16.3% in the 2010-2014 period, along with a sharp rise in the pre-tax profit margin, from 2.7 million to 6.0 million euro, the statement said.

The stock broking division of the group will develop services in the areas of investment banking and private banking in Slovenia and across southeast Europe.

In the initial stage, the group's asset manager will operate 22 investment funds. However, the group's long-term objective is to have a single umbrella fund that will incorporate all current sub-funds and mutual funds.

The MP and Publikum mutual funds controlled a combined 8.2% market share in the first half of 2009, placing them in fifth position among Slovenian mutual funds, the statement said.

With respect to stock brokerage activities, the three stock brokerage houses collectively handle 8.6% of all deals, placing them second on the Slovenian market.

In asset management, figures for the nine months to September 2009 show that the three companies managed 54 million euro worth of assets, which is nearly a 20% market share and the second place, by Slovenian standards, the statement said.

Publikum Group (www.publikum.si) is active in corporate finance, stock brokerage, investment consulting, mutual fund and portfolio management.

Medvesek Pusnik (www.medvesekpusnik.si) provides stock broking, mutual fund, private banking and tax consulting services.

Poteza Group (www.poteza.si) offers stock broking, asset management, investment banking and pension insurance services.