The central bank, Banka Slovenije, has instructed the Abanka bank to introduce measures to increase core capital. It tasked the bank with calling a shareholders' meeting by the end of April and propose a capital increase in the amount of EUR 90m. The recapitalisation should be carried out by the end of July.
The call comes after it became known yesterday that Slovenia's third largest bank only managed to raise EUR 36.4m in an attempted EUR 90m capital increase launched in December last year.
The bank's management and supervisors have already proposed the launch of a fresh attempt at securing EUR 90m, but under different conditions.
Banka Slovenije proposed to Abanka today to increase core capital by issuing new shares with an elimination of the priority right for existing shareholders so as to enable the bank's management to offer new shares without a public call only to specific investors, Abanka said on the web site of the Ljubljana
Stock Exchange.
The bank's management said that all the necessary activities for meeting the demand for capital were already under way. A shareholders' meeting was proposed to the supervisors yesterday.
The proposed price of a share will not be lower than EUR 1, while an elimination of the priority right for existing shareholders is also envisaged.
Apart from existing shareholders, other investors will also be invited to take part in the EUR 90m recapitalisation.
Abanka suffered a EUR 76m loss last year, which was EUR 43m less than in 2011. The first estimates put the value of impairments and provisions at EUR 127m. The bank's operating profit was at EUR 47m last year, 15% more than in 2011.
Source: Slovenia times
