Hungary’s MKB Bank said on Friday it was considering acquiring a stake in Croatia’s Slatinska Banka SNBA.ZA.
MKB, which is emerging from a European Union restructuring process that had barred it from takeovers, did not specify the size of stake it was looking at.
Slatinska Banka had total assets worth 1.57 billion Croatian kuna ($231.95 million) at the end of 2018, based on data from the Croatian National Bank. It earned a profit of 4.78 million kuna in 2018 based on central bank figures.
Its main shareholders at the end of 2018 were SZAIF dd. SLPF.ZA, a Croatia-based closed-end investment fund with a 24% stake, while the Republic of Croatia had an 8.24% stake.
MKB, Hungary’s eighth-largest lender by 2018 assets, recently formed an alliance with savings and loans group Takarek and state-owned Budapest Bank to explore a possible merger that would create Hungary’s No.2 banking group.
Source: Reuters.com