Italy’s Sanpaolo IMI takes over Italian – Albanian Bank shares

TIRANA, March 23 – The central Bank of Albania on Friday said it formalized the transfer of its 76.129 percent of the capital of the Italian-Albanian Bank to Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A. That is required after SanPaolo IMI S.p.A. merged with Banca Intesa S.p.A. creating the Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A. Following that Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A. will have 76.129 percent of the capital, EBRD will havbe 20 percent of the shareholder capital and SIMEST 3.871 percent.
The Italian-Albanian Bank was founded in 1992. It is now Albania’s fourth largest bank by loans and fifth by customer deposits. The bank, which has five branches in the main Albanian towns and 75 employees, has a net capital of US$20 million and a net income of US$3.2 million. The Italian-Albanian Bank was the last bank that had public ownership in Albania that is in the process of privatizing state-owned companies. In December 2003, it sold the Savings Bank of Albania to Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank.
Sanpaolo IMI Group has also bought 80 percent of the American Bank of Albania operating in Albania. Sanpaolo IMI Group has a leading position in Italy, and after merging with Banca Intesa total assets would be euro550 billion (US$691 billion), with over 6,200 domestic branches and agencies and more than 1,000 foreign branches. The combined net income in the first six months of 2006 was 2.6 billion Euros. The group is the third-largest bank for market capitalization in the Euro zone and the fourth in lending.
Some 17 commercial banks operate in Albania.