Czech MONETA Money Bank is in exclusive talks to buy the Czech building savings and mortgage business of Germany’s Wuestenrot & Wuerttembergische AG, the two firms said on Friday, aiming to sign a deal by the end of the year.
MONETA said the acquisition, to be financed from its own capital, concerned savings firm Wuestenrot – stavebni sporitelna and mortgage bank Wuestenrot – hypotecni banka.
“This acquisition fits with the bank´s long term retail banking growth strategy, MONETA Chief Executive Tomas Spurny said in a statement, adding that it would contribute to an increase in both earnings per share and dividend per share over the short- and medium-term.
MONETA said the price and other conditions of the deal would be disclosed when a share purchase agreement was signed.
It said the deal would give it 400,000 new customers, raise retail deposits by 45% or 53 billion crowns ($2.29 billion), and double its mortgage market share to 6%. It would also bring a 13 billion crown portfolio of retail building savings loans – a product for those who want to save money and take out a loan to build a home.
MONETA said its 2019 dividend would not be affected and the deal may lead to an extraordinary gain in the year of the acquisition, which it said it expected to close on April 1, 2020 if regulatory approvals are received.
Wuestenrot said in a separate statement the balance sheet of the two units was close to 3 billion euros.
Source: Reuters.com