The country’s fifth largest First Investment Bank (FIB) is planning to expand its activities to establish a regional network on the Balkans, executive director of the bank Evgeni Lukanov said for Investor.bg . In addition to its operations in Bulgaria , FIB has subsidiaries in Albania and Cyprus and majority stakes in Macedonia ’s Unibank and the Nis-based MB Bank in Serbia at present. FIB raised its net profit almost two times to BGN 10.1mn (EUR 5.2mn) in Q1 while the assets of the bank increased by 22.5% y/y to BGN 3.06bn. As previously reported, FIB will run a 10% capital hike to BGN 110mn (EUR 56.2mn) in a public offering that will take place this month. The goal of the IPO is to enhance the growth potential of the bank. First Financial Brokerage House (FFBH), which holds 14% of FIB at present and is acting as a lead manager of the IPO, will offer additional 5% of the bank’s capital during the IPO. Although the share offer does not contain any upper or lower price limits, FIB has announced price expectations in the range of BGN 7 to BGN 12. The market capitalisation set by the indicative price range is BGN 770mn to BGN 1.32bn.