Second sell-off complete

Posten is to sell its Postengirot bank to Swedish group Nordbanken, despite being forced to pull out of one prospective sale to another Swedish bank earlier this year when it found itself in trouble with the government’s competition authorities. Sweden’s postal operator stands to make Skr4,400-4,500 million out of the deal, which has yet to receive approval from the country’s competition authorities and the European Commission. A decision on the sale is expected to take two to six months. Late last year, the Swedish competition authority refused to green light a takeover by Svenska Girot of Postgirot because this would have meant a merging of the Swedish postal giro systems, which would possibly impair competition, explained Posten spokesman Markus Trautmann. “This is not the case with the current transaction. Nordbanken will continue to run Postgirot Bank as an independent company, in competition with Bankgirot and Privatgiro. This means that there are good chances of the transaction being approved,” Trautmann said.