Postbank itself has total assets of BGN 15.7 billion as of the end of September 2022. Even after the deal, however, the institution will remain far behind the top 3 in terms of industry indicator: balance sheet numbers of leaders Unicredit Bulbank and DSK Bank each exceed BGN 27 billion over the nine-month period, and that of the third UBB over the same period is BGN 16.6 billion. By early 2023, however, it is expected UBB finalizes merger with Raiffeisenbank Bulgaria(formerly renamed KBC Bank), whose assets at the end of September 2022 are close to BGN 12 billion.
Another purchase
This is not the first deal to take over Postbank. In 2007 it bought DZI Bank (formerly Roseximbank) and more recently the Bulgarian divisions of Greek Alpha Bank and Pireaus Bank. Therefore, the acquisition of BNP Paribas Personal Finance is the fourth after its privatisation.
In 2015, Post Bank announced that a in 2016, it officially bought the Greek bank Alpha branch in the country. The official price was not announced and in the summer of 2015 the Greek media and Reuters wrote that it was a symbolic 1 euro. In February 2016 it became clear that Postbank will increase its capital by 55 million euros so that it can meet regulatory requirements after taking over Alpha Bank’s activities in Bulgaria. Two years later, in November 2018, the subsidiary institution of Eurobank Ergasias announced the acquisition of another bank with Greek capital in the country – Piraeus. This ended the type of consolidation of financial institutions with Greek owners in the local market. Then the amount paid was 75 million euros, a the deal was finally finalized in the summer of 2019.
Given that the process of obtaining regulatory approvals, evident from the above examples, typically takes 6 to 9 months, the now-announced deadline to finalize the deal – “in early 2023” – seems ambitious.
“The agreement to acquire the BNP Paribas Personal Finance subsidiary in Bulgaria is another step towards expanding our market share and acquiring an even stronger and more stable position in the “big four” banking business All of us at Postbank see this yet another acquisition as a truly great achievement, with which we will become the only financial institution in our country that has completed three consecutive mergers in an extremely short period – at the same time in a challenging and changing environment. , which only provokes us to be even bigger winners,” commented Petya Dimitrova, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Post Bank.
