A consortium of Latvian Signet Bank AS and US investors will become the new owner of Czech Expobank CZ, whose main shareholder has been Russian financier Igor Kim since 2014, the bank announced.
The transaction is subject to approval of the Czech National Bank (CNB) which has been informed about the deal.
Once the deal is approved and completed, Expobank CZ will no longer have any Russian shareholders, the bank said.
The agreement announced today is a result of the long-term publicly known intent of the Expobank CZ shareholders to sell the bank to a strategic partner that will enable further growth and expansion.
Expobank CZ shareholders and the consortium have discussed the deal since 2021, and the main reason for it is that Expobank CZ shareholders had decided to focus on business activities other places than in Czechia in the future, Expobank CZ spokesman Jakub Svestka said.
“The acquisition of Expobank CZ represents exciting news for clients, employees, and other stakeholders. It brings new opportunities for further long-term strategic development of the bank in the Czech Republic,” said Signet Bank AS board chairman Roberts Idelsons.
Signet Bank AS, based in Riga, acquired 100 percent in local AS Expobank at the beginning of this year. It has a licence from Latvia’s authority and the European Central Bank.
Expobank CZ is a smaller Czech bank active on the market since 1991. It joined the Expobank network in 2014 after Kim agreed with Germany’s LBBW on the purchase of its Czech unit.
At the end of February, the CNB launched steps to revoke the licence of Sberbank CZ, another Czech bank linked to Russia, because of the deterioration of the bank’s liquidity situation in the context of a significant outflow of deposits after Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Client compensation payout started on Wednesday.
There are 44 banks and foreign banks’ branches in Czechia, including Sberbank CZ, according to the latest CNB data.
Source: Signet Bank AS and CTK
