Ljubljana, 22 March (STA) - Three bidders had submitted binding bids for the state's 100% stake in lender Abanka by the Wednesday deadline: US private equity fund Apollo, Hungarian OTP bank and the Serbian AIK bank, business paper Finance reports on Friday citing unofficial sources.
All three bidders have previously expressed tentative interest in Slovenia's third largest bank, and the acquisition is in line with their strategies.
Apollo already owns the no. 2 lender, NKBM, whereas AIK has recently completed the purchase of Gorenjska Banka, a small privately held bank, and has openly said it was interested in Abanka.
OTP does not have a Slovenian presence yet but has been very active in the region with the support of the Hungarian government.
The privatisation procedure is handled by Slovenian Sovereign Holding (SSH), which will now enter negotiations with the bidder to secure the maximum price, Finance says.
Abanka has been in 100% state ownership since it was bailed out with taxpayer money in 2013. Its balance sheet has since been cleared of bad loans and the bank posted a net profit of EUR 53.5m for the first nine months of the year, up a quarter year-on-year.
While the pricing of the offers remains a secret - SSH has not been officially disclosing any details of the procedure - analysts estimated it at EUR 340-460m late last year based on the book value.
Slovenia must privatise Abanka to satisfy commitments it made in 2013 in exchange for the EU clearance of state aid.