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Largest EBRD equity investment completes important privatisation in Bratislava
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has made an equity investment of EUR 125 million in Ceskoslovenska Obchodni Banka (CSOB), with branches in the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. This is the largest equity investment that the EBRD has undertaken.
The EBRD purchased a 7.47 per cent stake in CSOB from the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS). The sale was made alongside Belgium’s KBC bank, which purchased the remaining 16.63 per cent held by the NBS. This completes the privatisation of CSOB.
This privatisation will, furthermore, resolve a long outstanding issue of ownership of CSOB, which has been both owned and regulated by the Czech and Slovak National Banks.
"This concludes an important privatisation in the banking sector of the Czech and Slovak Republics, and puts in place a strong strategic investor with extensive experience in the region," said Kurt Geiger, EBRD Business Group Director for Financial Institutions. "It will enable CSOB to develop corporate and retail banking services, and to support small and medium-sized enterprises in both the Czech and Slovak Republics."
Since the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, CSOB has been owned predominately by the Czech and Slovak Governments -- 65.7 per cent by the Czech Government and its agents and 24.1 per cent by the NBS. In mid-1999, the Czech Government sold its shares in CSOB to KBC Bank.
Mr Geiger continued: "Any incoming strategic investor would have been faced with the uncertain prospect of an ownership structure split between two countries. On the invitation of the Czech and Slovak authorities, the EBRD, made clear its willingness to participate in this privatisation of the Slovak portion from an early stage. This offered any potential strategic investor an important sense of comfort in a politically sensitive environment."
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