OTP bank resumes negotiations on acquisition of Nova Kreditna Banka Maribor - Offices in Serbia disputable?

Hungarian bank OTP is negotiating a higher bid for the Slovenian state-owned bank NKBM (Nova Kreditna Banka Maribor) provided that the Government excludes non-profitable assets from the offer, a source from OTP Bank told Reuters.
- We have offered EUR 130 million, but our opinion is that offices in Serbia and leasing department have a negative value - an unnamed highly ranked source familiar with the negotiations said Monday.

- We told them that we were ready to increase the bid, but only if these lossmakers were excluded from the offer - said the source.

According to the Slovenian print media, U.S. equity fund Apollo has made a competitive bid of EUR 200 million, and the Slovenian government intends to choose buyer by the end of February. In November 2013, the Slovenian government spent over EUR 3 billion on saving several banks, including NKBM.

NKBM is among 15 companies that the Government of Slovenia designated for privatization in 2013. Three of them have been privatized in the meantime, and the Slovenian government still controls more than a half of the local banking sector.

Nova KBM d.d. Maribor

Vlada Republike Slovenije

OTP BANK Budapest, Hungary

OTP banka Srbija a.d. Novi Sad

Nova kreditna banka DD Maribor u Beogradu

Nova kreditna banka Maribor

NKBM

KBM banka

Apollo

leasing