Government of Republic of Srpska to become co-owner of Agrobanka in RS

The Government of the Republic of Srpska will co-participate with Agrobanka from Serbia in formation of a namesake bank in the Republic of Srpska (RS), which should be opened in 2011.

The founding share of the entity government as a co-owner will amount to 20%, and the funds will be provided from Investiciono-Razvojna Banka RS (Investment-Development Bank of RS), that is, its funds.

The Serbian bank should invest 80% of capital and, according to Prime Minister of RS Milorad Dodik, the bank in RS should start operating from the New Year and it will be focused on the issues of support to agricultural production.

Dodik said at the press conference after the meeting of the Government of RS that the agreement had been reached with the representatives of the Serbian bank, which would give a founding share of 10 million euros, EUR 2m of which would be invested by the Government of RS.

Minister of Finance of RS Aleksandar Dzombic said that Serbian Agrobanka was a successful, commercial bank that disposed of total balance sum of 650 million euros and that it had achieved positive results in 2009 and the first half of 2010.

Last year, Belgrade-based Agrobanka turned about 12 million euros worth of profit and registered about 200 million euros worth of revenues.