Austrian Bank Sells Stake in Private Bank Subsidiary

Chris Owen

17 July 2007

Austria's Meinl Bank has finalised the sale of its Slovak subsidiary Privatbanka to Slovak finance group Penta, after receiving approval by the Slovak National Bank and the local anti-trust authority, according to Slovak economic daily Hospodarske noviny. Meinl Bank announced it was in talks over the sale of Privatbanka to Penta at the end of February 2007. It acquired 60 per cent in the then retail bank Banka Slovakia for SKK360 million at the end of 2002 and transformed it into a private bank for wealthy clients. Privatbanka's balance sheet value stood at SKK7.4 billion ($307 million) and its profit rose 35 per cent year-on-year to SKK64 million in 2006. Prior to the sale Meinl bank owned 49.58 per cent of Privatbanka through its BASL Holding, while a 19.8 per cent stake in the bank belonged to the Slovak subsidiary of German insurance group Allianz. The remaining 30.6 per cent was in free float.