IntesaBci, Italy's largest banking group and owners of Comit Factoring, won the tender to buy Vseobecna Uverova Bank (VUB), Slovakia's second biggest bank and owners of VUB Factoring, with a bid of 550m.
The planned sale of VUB represents a victory for IntesaBci over Societe Generale of France, the other short-listed bidder.
IntesaBci is buying the government's 67% stake and also plans to buy the 25% of shares acquired by the EBRD and the International Finance Corporation in January. It will pay 550m for the whole 94.5% of VUB - which has assets of about Sk171.4bn ($3.5bn) - or a relatively low 1.45 times book value.
IntesaBci, like Italian counterpart UniCredito Italiano, has been expanding aggressively in central Europe where the banking market is expected to grow strongly as the region converges with the European Union. Besides Slovakia, IntesaBci also owns banks in Croatia and Hungary.
