The announcement follows hard on the heels of the Alpha Bank of Greece acquisition of Jubanka, fifth largest bank by assets, from the government (see Bottom Line, p.132).
Banca Intesa will pay either E277.5m cash for the majority share or E370m cash for all the share capital, a multiple of 3.2 times shareholders equity at year-end 2004. Funding for the acquisition will be through disposal of non-core assets that started with the recent sale of stakes in Germany’s Commerzbank and HypoVereinsbank.
Delta Banka will add a further 144 branches to Intesa’s existing network of over 500 branches in central and eastern Europe and bring the total number of clients served in the region to approximately 3.5 million.