Whether merging of the Montenegrin Commercial Bank (CKB) and Societe Generale Bank will be approved is not known yet, since the Central Bank hasn’t collected all the information, evidence and data necessary to make a decision.
Hungarian OTP Bank said on 28 February that its Montenegrin branch signed the contract on the purchase of 90,56% of shares of Societe Generale Bank at a cost of €40,5 million. According to the Law, merging isn’t possible without the approval of the Central Bank of Montenegro. Profit of the Montenegrin Commercial Bank amounted €10,8 million last year, whereas the profit of the Societe General Bank amounted €10,6 million.
“Central Bank of Montenegro has received the request of the Montenegrin Commercial Bank for the approval of the acquisition of 90,5578 % of shares. This is only the first step towards the merging, which is going to happen in two phases”, said the representatives of the CB.
The first phase refers to the request for issuing approval for the acquisition of qualified interest.
Central Bank will collect all the relevant information, evidence and data on the basis of which it will decide about the fulfillment of the requirements for the approval for merging two banks.
“Central Bank will take into consideration impact that merging would have on banking market, effects of healthy synergy and alike”, explained the representatives of the Central Bank.
