Hungary's OTP Bank said on Wednesday it has made a binding bid on a 95.59% stake in Croatia's seventh largest bank, Nova Banka.
The news is not a complete surprise as OTP's László Wolf already signalled a few days ago that that they would make announcements with regards to Nova Banka and Jubanka this week.
At the end of October there were four banks showing interest in acquiring Nova Banka. They were Hungary's OTP, Societe Generale of France and two local banks, Privredna Banka Zagreb controlled by Italian Banca Intesa and HVB Splitska Banka, which is part of Germany's HVB Group.
Before the announcement OTP shares were down 1.5% at HUF 5,330, while at 1510 local time there traded at HUF 5,316, down 1.7% from Tuesday's close.
As a result of outstanding Q3 figures, new potential acquisitions and the fact that several analysts
A few days earlier, however, OTP shares jumped to an all-time high of HUF 5,705, as the result of outstanding Q3 figures, new potential acquisitions and the fact that several analysts raised their target price for the bank.
Nova Banka had EUR 1 billion balance sheet total at the end of 2003, making it the seventh largest bank in Croatia.
It has over 300,000 clients and a network of 92 branches. Nova Banka had a share of 6.3% of the country's retail deposits market and in terms of retail lending it covered 4.3% of the market, according to data from end-June.
The bank's equity was more than EUR 78 million at the end of 2003.
Source: Portfolio online financial journal
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26.11.2004