The state antitrust commission has allowed the Luxembourg-registered Bulgarian Acquisition Company II S.a.r.L., part of Oman ’s State General Reserve Fund, to acquire 30% of the country’s tenth largest Corporate Bank from the local company Bromak, a note on the website of the regulator reads. Bulgarian Acquisition Company has not been present on the local banking sector by now and the deal will not pose any competition threats. The price of the takeover is not unveiled yet although Corporate Bank is listed on the local stock exchange. Its market capitalisation reached BGN 447mn (EUR 229mn) yesterday. The takeover should be approved by the central bank as well. Bromak owns directly 57.8% of the lender and controls indirectly the other big stakeholder, which holds 23.3% of the bank. The remaining 18.9% of the shares are publicly traded.
The net profit of Corporate Bank surged 74.1% to BGN 40.3mn (EUR 20.6mn) last year, accelerating from 63.8% y/y in Jan-Sep. It outruns the annual plan by 2.7%. The assets of the bank rose 18.8% in a year to BGN 2.1bn as of the end of December. The return on equity and assets improved to 21.9% and 2.3% from 18.3% and 1.9% in 2007.