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EBRD reduces stake in Hungary’s OTP bank
The EBRD has sold 1.4 million shares of its stake in Hungary’s OTP Bank Rt.
(OTP), the country’s leading commercial bank, through Credit Suisse First
Boston. The sale represents a quarter of the EBRD’s shareholding in OTP.
Following the transaction the EBRD retains a 1.5 per cent holding in OTP.
The shares, which are listed on the Budapest, Frankfurt and Luxembourg stock
exchanges, were placed as a block trade at an exit price which represented a
small discount to the closing price of HUF 7,283 on the Budapest Stock
Exchange.
The Bank originally acquired its stake in OTP in October 1999 as part of a
secondary public offering of the company, when 14 per cent of the company was
offered by the Hungarian State Privatisation Agency. This offering completed
the privatisation of OTP through the Budapest Stock exchange.
EBRD Business Group Director Kurt Geiger said the Bank as an anchor investor
helped the finalisation of OTP’s public offering in a turbulent market
environment in 1999. Since then the bank has strengthened its position as the
leading commercial bank in Hungary and emerged as a major player in the
central and south-Eastern European market following a number of successful
acquisitions. OTP and EBRD have developed an excellent cooperation through
credit lines to OTP subsidiaries in Hungary and the region.
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