Finance SCP Helped Investbank Finalize Transaction for Victoriabank

Business

Less than three months after the conclusion of the contract with which Investbank buys Victoria Bank, the last regulator hired, the Commission for the Protection of Competition (CPC), gave the green light to the transaction.

In its badysis of the effect of the transaction on the banking market, the antitrust authority stresses that the merger of the two institutions will not threaten the sector, all the more so as it it fits fully into the trend of consolidation. Victoria was the last acquisition of Corporate Commercial Bank (CCB), swallowed literally a month before the bankruptcy of summer 2014. Since then, several attempts have been made to sell what is left of it.

After a four-year surge

In competition with BACB Investbank of Petya Slavova was chosen as buyer by the CCB trustees in April of this year after the Previously, the BNB approved the two bidders. The price of the operation remains secret, but according to the procedure, the new owner has to repay a deposit of about 85 million BGN that the BCC holds at the bank, and also pay a price for the capital of Victoria Bank which is 31.6 million at the time of the transaction. There is no information on how the buyer will repay on time – whether in installments or at one time and that he has already repaid one.

Bank regulator follow-up after weak resistance test two years ago, in June Investbank announced a capital increase of BGN 10 million and a profit of BGN 2.6 million for the first quarter of this year. year. "The transaction will increase the value of the badets of the balance sheet and the investment portfolio of Investbank, as well as a decrease in total administrative costs, optimization result and operations and centralized activities", the CPC badyzes the transaction which examines the possible consequences of its implementation for the banking market.

The antitrust authority points out that after the absorption of TB "Victoria" Investbank will hold 2.1% of the badets in the banking system. The combined group will have 2.41% of household deposits and 0.75% of mortgages, and the consumer share of both institutions is 1%. Wholesale banking is also modest as a player with 2.22% of business loans in the banking system and 2.26% of business loans. Their participation in the financial market is not significant in terms of turnover and the number of stock market transactions

"The proposed concentration does not result in the creation or strengthening of A dominant position limiting or hindering effective competition in the markets. that the banking sector in Bulgaria is characterized by a good competitive environment, and the CPC agrees that the notified transaction should be allowed unconditionally, "with which the Regulator's team, whose president is Yulia Nenkova, decides its Immediate XECUTION.

Transaction Waking Dreamers

This odyssey nearly four years TB "Victoria" is over.This began with the bankruptcy of the CWB in 2014, which forced the bank to be placed under special surveillance and to then sell badets such as the attractive credit portfolios inherited from the time when the bank called Credit Agricole.The first attempts to find a buyer have shown ambitions to enter the bankers business as that candidates such as the insurer Lev Ins, then Vabo Internal, related to the owner of the game Vbadil Bozhkov.Aerial Kerbler Holding appeared on several occasions, e Once again the regulator showed that it would not approve an agreement with a non-strategic investor, the applications of financial intermediaries such as Commercial Bank E, Investbank and BACB remained

The last bank continues to have The ambitions for growth by consolidation and has been cited as a favorite in the procedure for Piraeus Bank Bulgaria, whose sale is expected to be finalized this year