Once a shareholder in banks across large parts of central, eastern and western Europe, GE Capital is now withdrawing – and the door to its Czech bank will be the last significant one to close behind it. In May 2016, Czech GE Money Bank started the decoupling process from GE Capital with its initial public offering (IPO) of 260.61 million ordinary shares on the Prague Stock Exchange.
The listing came with a reduction in GE ownership to a 48% stake in the business and a new name for the bank: Moneta Money Bank. But there is more to come. General Electric, which was bound to a 180-day lock-up agreement, was granted permission by the underwriting banks to break the agreement earlier.