Hungary Will Privatize Postabank

The state privatisation agency, APV Rt, will announce an open tender for a majority stake or the totality of the state-owned shares in Postabank, the country’s only commercial bank yet to be sold to foreign investors, the Nepszava daily reported, citing the national post office Magyar Posta Rt. Magyar Posta will have to privatise Postabank ‘as quickly as possible’ under a decision by the finance ministry and the state privatisation agency, post office head Gyoergy Csaki said. ‘There has been no decision so far on how large a stake should be sold, or whether the purchase price would go to Magyar Posta or to the APV Rt,’ said Csaki. He said the transaction could take from four months to a year, ‘as it takes at least four months to prepare a verified balance report and receive the offers.’ Postabank has 160 outlets nationwide and had total assets worth 1.437 bln eur in January when the government transferred 32.999 pct of the state-owned shares to Magyar Posta through a capital increase. Postabank had consolidated losses of more than 13 mln eur last year, and two governments have spent around 1.3 bln eur on its stabilisation. In the upcoming deal, analysts said they expect the purchase price to be worth at least 202 mln eur.