Piraeus gives up sale of its stake in AIK Banka to Kostic

(Photo: Ivana Vuksa)

Although the media announced that MK Group's owner Miodrag Kostic was going to take over AIK Banka, the Piraeus group is not ready to sell its stake, the daily Dnevnik reports.

According to this daily, the following period will bring about many changes in Serbia's banking market. The entire last year we could hear the announcements of arrival of one of the banks from the Emirates, which should finnally happen this year. Besides, Cacanska, Hypo and AIK Banka expect to get new owners in 2014.

The most attention in the previous period was attracted by the intention expressed by businessman Miodrag Kostic, that is, his MK Group, to completely take over AIK Banka through its subsidiary Sunoko.

The broker company Sinteza has already calculated that MK Group would need to set aside RSD 9.2 billion or nearly EUR 80 million to buy a 100% stake in aforementioned bank.

AIK Banka's biggest shareholder with a stake of 20.35 percent is the Greek ATE Bank owned by the Piraeus group. When asked if they planned to sell this stake to Sunoko, people at Piraeus Bank told Dnevnik that they "are not ready to sell its shares in AIK Banka for several reasons."