J&T financial group looks set to make a bid for Postova Banka, which is currently owned by Czech billionaire Mario Hoffmann, which would up the group’s current 10% share in the bank to around 75-80%.
According to an article this week in Hospodarske Noviny, Hoffmann could remain at the helm of the bank despite the takeover. The financial group has its own bank J&T Bank, which focuses mostly on private banking for more affluent clients, but the new acquisition would let it also compete on the retail market.
Postova Banka suffered at the hands of badly placed investments in Greek bonds, and the acquisition price is being kept a bit of a secret, but there is talk of a sum of just over EUR 200 million to correspond with the bank’s share capital. The bank only made a profit of EUR 5.19 million in 2011, but the financial group has plans to boost this up to as much as EUR 100 million a year.