Albanian C-Bank To Rule on Sale of 11.25% EBRD Stake in ProCredit Bank

TIRANA, Aug. 16 – Albania’s central bank said on Wednesday it had received a request from the local unit of international banking group ProCredit on the sale of a 11.25% stake owned by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). “ProCredit Bank Albania has submitted to the Bank of Albania a request for the approval of the transfer of the 11.25% stake held by the EBRD to ProCredit Holding,” the central bank said in a statement.ProCredit Holding is currently the biggest shareholder in ProCredit Bank Albania with a 32.5% stake. Provided the central bank gives its approval to the request, ProCredit Holding’s equity will rise to 43.75%.The other shareholders in ProCredit Bank Albania are the German bank for reconstruction and development KfW, Germany’s Comerzbank, the EBRD and the World Bank’s private investment arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC).It was not immediately clear when Albania’s central bank will rule on the request.ProCredit Bank Albania had a 2.7 million euro ($3.5 million) net profit on a 13.3 million euro net operating income for 2005, up 114% and 36%, respectively. It had total assets of 191.3 million euro at the end of 2005, up 31% from a year earlier. It currently runs a network of 19 branches countrywide.The total assets of the Albanian banking system, which comprised 16 banks last year, reached almost 4.0 billion euro at the end of 2005.ProCredit Bank Albania became part of the ProCredit group in 2003. The bank was previously named Fefad Bank, licensed by the central bank in 1999, and was owned by the Fefad Foundation, a joint initiative of the Albanian Finance Ministry, the EBRD, the IFC and German investment fund Internationale Micro Investitiones AG (IMI).ProCredit is the only bank in Albania rated by international ratings agency Fitch. The agency affirmed its ‘B+’ foreign currency issuer default rating (IDR) for the bank in June. The short-term foreign currency and the short-term local currency ratings were affirmed at ‘B’ and the local currency IDR at ‘BB_. The bank’s other ratings were affirmed at individual ‘D/E’ and support ‘4’.