New Administrative Board of Metals Banka appointed

The Assembly of Shareholders of Metals Banka appointed new five-member Administrative Board today (November 12, 2009), which is one of the formal conditions for abolition of the administrative receivership.

According to the announcement, the five members of the bank's Administrative Board are Ljiljana Sredojev (chairman), Ivan Ferko, Stevan Šogorov, Christian Otto-Neu andGuilio Baseggio from company DDOR Novi Sad.

The National Bank of Serbia placed Metals Banka from Novi Sad into receivership in October 2008 due to its poor financial state caused by the liquidity crisis, which got worse at the time when the bank was subjected to corrective measures of the central bank.

Metals Banka was additionally capitalized in mid-July through the new issuance of 668,100 stocks at the price of 5,500 RSD per stock, and all the stocks were sold to the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina and Insurance company DDOR "Novi Sad".

That helped the bank cover the losses of 4 billion RSD, which was one of the main reasons for introduction of administrative receivership.

The Autonomous Province of Vojvodina acquired majority ownership in Metals Banka (61.9%) through additional capitalization, while DDOR kept its share of 10% in the bank's capital.

During the recent discussion about the Draft Statute of Vojvodina, it was mentioned several times that Vojvodina would get a development bank.

Receiver Srđan Petrović said in an interview that it would be the best for Metals Banka to merge with the Development Fund of Vojvodina and become the Development Bank of Vojvodina. We could also hear similar announcements from the provincial officials, including Bojan Pajtić, the President of the Executive Council of Vojvodina.