LJUBLJANA (Slovenia), June 14 (SeeNews) – U.S. investment fund Apollo and Hungarian bank OTP are the only two candidate buyers for Slovenian lender Abanka to file biding bids, local media reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources.
Slovenia's sovereign holding company SDH will decide on the sale of the state-owned lender on Monday, daily Delo reported.
You can subscribe to our M&A newsletter here
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.
In April, Abanka said its consolidated net profit rose to 65.6 million euro ($74.1 million) in 2018 from 41.6 million euro in the previous year. Abanka’s consolidated net interest income decreased 16.8% on the year to 61.1 million euro in 2018.
The bank's total assets increased to 3.73 billion euro at the end of 2018 from 3.65 billion euro a year earlier.
($ = 0.8859 euro)