TIRANA, April 4
After closing the financial acquisition of the Albanian subsidiary of France’s Societe Generale (SGAL) on 29 March, the Hungarian OTP Bank made an official presentation on Wednesday.
“The first Hungarian investment will enhance trade relations as well as strengthen bilateral cooperation between Albania and Hungary,” the Hungarian Embassy to Tirana announced.
None of the banks unveiled the transaction price, but according to Reuters, a source said that the purchase price was less than Euro 40 million.
OTP is the sole owner of SGAL, which is the fifth largest bank in the Albanian market with a share of about six percent. This acquisition brings to ten the number of countries, mostly in Central and East Europe, where the bank is present. It also considers this as a good opportunity for expanding further in the region.
The Hungarian bank started the deal in August while 15 years ago it couldn’t purchase the former Albanian Saving Bank, now Raiffeisen.
OTP’s Chairman and CEO Sandor Csanyi said that the market capitalization of the group is about Euro 11 billion euros. Thus the bank has the assets to cope with every situation.
Photo Credit: Hungary in Albania
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.