January 23 (SeeNews) - Turkey's Halkbank [BIST:HALKB] is the only lender that has filed a request with the National Bank of Serbia (NBS) for preliminary clearance to acquire a stake in local Cacanska Banka [BEL:CCNB], the press office of the NBS told SeeNews in an email on Thursday.
In November, Serbia's Deposit Insurance Agency invited investors to file expressions of interest for the acquisition of no less than 76.74% of the ordinary share capital of Cacanska Banka.
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The deadline for the filing of expressions of interest was December 24. All documents and related necessary evidence for a good standing evaluation by the NBS were due to be submitted by interested parties by January 22.
The share capital of Cacanska Banka that is offered for sale consists of the ordinary shares owned by the Serbian government, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Beogradska Banka, which is undergoing bankruptcy proceedings and is currently under the control of the Deposit Insurance Agency.
The government owns a 28.49% stake in Cacanska Banka while the EBRD, the IFC and Beogradska Banka control 24.99%, 19.99% and 3.27%, respectively, data from the Central Depository and Clearing House showed.
Cacanska Banka recorded a pre-tax profit of 19.1 million dinars ($225,000/165,000 euro) through September. The bank's total assets rose to an unaudited 294 million euro at the end of September from an audited 289 million euro at the end of 2012.
(1 euro=115.8208 Serbian dinars)