National Bank of Greece Close to Acquiring Kreditprombank?

The National Bank of Greece is close to signing a preliminary agreement to buy Ukrainian Kreditprombank (14th by assets in 2007), said Greek newspaper Imersisia via Bloomberg News. The article indicated that the National Bank of Greece is close to concluding the acquisition for between USD 914 mln and USD 1 bln. Earlier this year, French Societe General was said to be targeting Kreditprombank, but recent media reports indicate that it backed down due to trading losses of EUR 5 bln. Alexander Viktorov: If the deal is concluded, it would be the year’s second acquisition in the banking sector, following Pravex Bank’s sell out to Intesa Sanpaolo for USD 750 mln. Assuming the sale of a 100% stake, the deal would value Kreditprombank at P/B of 3.4x-4.0x based on its 2007 book value of USD 221 mln and the recent USD 39 mln share capital injection completed in January.