Number Of Bulgarian-Owned Banks Falls To Eight
It became clear this week that the negotiations on the sale of EIBank have entered an advanced stage. The identity of the future shareholders was also disclosed by the media – these are the Belgium financial group KBC and the biggest non-public bank in Spain La Caixa.
If the sale is finalized, the number of banks with predominantly Bulgarian capital will fall to eight. These are First Investment Bank, Central Cooperative Bank, Corporate Commercial Bank, CB Investbank, International Asset Bank, Municipal Bank, Texim bank, and state-owned Encouragement Bank.
Four of these banks have listed their stock on the BSE, and CB Investbank will soon do this as well. The total market capitalization of these banks stood at nearly 3.718 bln leva (1.900 mln euros), or more than 14% of the total BSE capitalization (26.760 bln leva/13.682 bln euros). The market value of EIBank alone amounts to nearly 1.063 bln leva (543.503 euros).
It is expected that the bank's share will continue to grow, especially after Central Cooperative Bank announced plans for another capital increase, from the current 72.76 mln leva (37.201 mln euros) to 83.155 mln leva (42.516 mln euros). The bank will issue new shares for the purpose.
The assets attracted by Bulgarian banks stood at 42.579 bln leva (21.770 bln euros) at the end of June.