LJUBLJANA (Slovenia), March 19 (SeeNews) – Hungary's OTP Bank has not yet placed a final offer for the acquisition of a 100% shareholding interest in Slovenian state-owned banking group Abanka, Hungarian media reported on Tuesday.
"Contrary to the information in the Slovenian press, the submission of the final offer has not yet taken place," Budapest-based daily Vilaggazdasag quoted sources from OTP as saying.
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Last week, Slovenian daily Dnevnik reported that OTP placed the best bid for Slovenia's third-largest lender Abanka, offering to pay about 300 million euro ($341 million). It added that OTP was also interested in buying SKB bank, the Slovenian unit of French bank Societe Generale.
According to Vilaggazdasag, the reported bid is much lower than Abanka's 578.9 million euro equity and the price range of 347 million euro to 463 million euro estimated by analysts polled by Invest Slovenia last year.
OTP is considering expanding its business in Slovenia and expressed indicative interest in the privatisation of Abanka in 2018, the CEO of OTP, Laszlo Bencsik, told Vilaggazdasag earlier this month.
Slovenia's state holding company SDH invited in October expressions of interest for the sale of 100% shareholding interest in Abanka.
In 2013, the Slovenian government had to step in and recapitalise Abanka with 348 million euro whilst also seizing control of the bank. In October 2015, Abanka and its state-owned peer Banka Celje merged. Banka Celje ceased to exist as an independent legal entity. Abanka as the acquiring company and universal legal successor entered all legal relations concerning its peer.
($ = 0.8806 euro)