Credin’s Bank shareholders transfer is approved

TIRANA, Feb.17 – BoA approved on Thursday the transfer of a 14.67 percent stake in Credins bank between two shareholders. The request had been made last year but refused on the basis of a pending legal process on one of the shareholders of the transaction. BoA supervisory board said in a statement that it “approved the application for the transfer of the stake owned by the shareholder Muhamet Malo to the shareholder Renis Tershana.” Hence, Tershana becomes the second-largest shareholder in the bank with a 22.76 percent stake, after Albanian financial group Credins, which owns 41.33percent. The board decided to deny the request the first time “for safety reasons” but now, as the buyer has a clean legal record, the approval was made possible, BoA’s press officer Najada Samarxhiu added. BoA has the legal right to examine, approve and veto transfers of stakes in local banks exceeding 10 percent of their share capital. Credins bank was the first bank in Albania fully owned by private capital. It was set up in 2003 and now it runs a network of 16 branches. For the year 2005 Credins reported a 75 million leks ($787,000/600,000 euro) net profit. Its total assets reached 16.7 billion leks at the end of 2005, almost doubling from the previous year.