EBRD allowed additional capitalization of Komercijalna Banka

The Board of Directors of European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has granted 4.6m RSD for additional capitalization of Belgrade-based Komercijalna Banka.

According to website www.ebrd.com, besides EBRD, which owns 25% of stocks of Komercijalna Bank, International Finance Corporation (IFC), German Investment Fund DEG and Swedish Fund for Investments in Underdeveloped Countries (Swedfund) will also take part in that additional capitalization worth total of 11.4 billion RSD.

- The capital will be increased through the issue of preferred stocks without the right to vote, which can be turned into common stocks with the right to vote starting from January 1st, 2013 - it is stated on the website.

- The purpose of additional capitalization is to make the systemically significant bank in Serbia stronger at the time of the crisis, to make it possible for Komercijalna Banka to increase capital in banks-daughters in Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina and continue granting loans to the economy sector - EBRD announced.

The Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia, Mlađan Dinkić, announced on December 3rd that the contract on additional capitalization of Komercijalna Banka, worth 120m EUR, would be signed with international creditors on December 17th.

Dinkić said that the Government of Serbia would have three years to follow that additional capitalization in order to keep the share of 46.2% in Komercijalna Banka, and he added that EBRD's share would be increased from 25 to 34.6%.

Komercijalna Banka Belgrade is the second strongest bank in Serbian market. It has over 900,000 clients and more than 1.2m accounts.

According to the data provided by the Belgrade Stock Exchange, the state directly owns 42.59% of capital of Komercijalna Banka. Indirectly, through other state-owned companies, Serbia owns over 50% of stocks of Komercijalna Banka. European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is the owner of 25% of stocks.

According to the data announced on the website of the National Bank of Serbia (www.nbs.rs), total capital of Komercijalna Banka at the end of September 2009 amounted to 26.6 billion RSD.