Acquisition of Komercijalna Banka to be Completed by the End of the Year – Around EUR 400 Million to be Paid to the State Budget

Serbian Finance Minister Sinisa Mali has stated that the procedure of the acquisition of Komercijalna Banka by the Slovenian NLB should be completed by the end of the year and that the amount of around EUR 400 million will be paid to the budget.

Mali told Tanjug that the necessary approval of the European Central Bank had arrived several days before and that it had been submitted to the National Bank of Serbia.

Around EUR 60 million has already been paid to the state through dividends, and the payment of the dividends was one of the conditions for the completion of the transaction pertaining to the acquisition of Komercijalna Banka.

– We expect the NBS to give its approval in the next couple of days and several other documents remain to be obtained. I expect the transaction to be finalized and the payment to the budget to be made by the end of the year – Mali said.

He says that some of the money will be used to repay the debt to Azerbaijan of EUR 170 million.

He noted that the loan had been taken out in 2012 at the interest rate of 4% and that it was the most expensive credit that Serbia had at the moment.

The state will try to save the rest of the amount, he adds, so that, if necessary, it can help the economy in 2021 as well.

Of the already received EUR 60 million (around RSD 7 billion), RSD 3.7 billion pertains to the obligation under contract for a half of the last year’s profit to be distributed through dividends.

The privatization of Komercijalna Banka is a part of the agreement with the IMF, which expires at the end of the year.

Ministarstvo finansija Republike Srbije

NLB Banka a.d. Beograd

NLB Komercijalna banka AD Beograd

Ministry of Finance

NLB Bank

Komercijalna banka

European Central Bank

Siniša Mali

purchase of Komercijalna banka

acquisition of Komercijalna banka