Chinese investors entering ownership structure of Croatia's Vaba Bank

Varazdin's Vaba Bank has asked for a permit from the Croatian National Bank (CNB) for the acquisition of an ownership share in the bank by Chinese investors, namely, CEFC Hainan International Holding and CEFC Shanghai International Group.

Vaba Bank has reported that this is an indirect acquisition of a qualified share through the Chinese investors' entrance into the ownership structure of the Czech J&T Finance Group, whose bank is the majority shareholder (82.55%) of Croatia's Vaba.

The Czech J&T Bank entered Vaba Bank in mid-2014 with a capital increase in the amount of HRK 75 million (EUR 9.9 million), acquiring 58.33% of the ownership, and later increased its ownership share to 82.55% with further capital increases.

According to temporary unrevised data recently published by the CNB, Vaba Bank is one of the seven banks in Croatia which incurred gross operating loss in the first nine months of 2016 in the amount bigger than HRK 64 million (EUR 8.5 million).

The bank, along with its property, is worth HRK 1.7 billion (EUR 225.5 million), making up 0.43% of the total property of Croatian banks and is the 18th of the 27 banks currently operating in Croatia.

Vaba d.d. banka Varaždin

Hrvatska narodna banka Zagreb

Varazdin bank

Vaba Bank

Croatian National Bank

CNB

CEFC Hainan International Holding

CEFC Shanghai International Group

J&T Finance Group Czech Republic