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bne November 2018 Companies & Markets I 11
Kellner was talking down the price while hiving off its best assets.
"The morning market reaction is a typical response when the buyers express concern about whether the acquisition is correct and, most importantly, correctly valued," said Radim Dohnal, an analyst from Capitalinked.com.
The unexpected transaction made a lot of sense, CEO of Chytry Honza Nicolas Eich observed. The new entity would become a leading player with a broad distribution network and a strong technological focus.
PPF Banka and the Zonka peer-to-peer lender are not part of the planned merger, Czech daily Lidove noviny indicated.
Completion of the Moneta/PPF transaction is planned for July 1, 2019. Upon settlement, Moneta will acquire 100% of the shares in Air Bank and Home Credit CZ/SK.
The new bank’s distribution network in the Czech Republic would boast 237 retail branches and 2,961 business partners supported by 1,005 ATMs.
More than a million clients of the Moneta Bank would join about 637,000 Air Bank customers and about 469,000 Home Credit retail borrowers.
Moneta’s goal
For Moneta Bank, the goal of transaction is to increase earnings per share and dividend per share capacity by at least 10% in the first year after the transaction is closed. The newly formed group will target 75% of lending activities in retail and small business.
"Challenger banks have taken more than a million customers
in the last 10 years out of the large banks," Moneta CEO Tomas Spurny said, as quoted by Reuters. "Instead of fighting a competitive pricing war we want to join our capabilities."
PPF Group invests in a number of sectors from banking and financial services to telecommunications, biotechnology, insurance services, real estate and agriculture.
It operates in Europe, Russia, Asia and North America. At the end of the year, the Group owned assets worth more than €38bn.
Home Credit, founded in 1997, is one of the leading providers of consumer finance in Central and Eastern Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States and Asia. The majority
“Challenger banks have taken more than a million customers in the last
10 years out of the large banks”
owner is PPF Financial Holdings with 88.6%. The minority shareholder is the investment holding company Emma Omega owned by Smejc with 11.4%.
Moneta is a specialist retail and small and medium size enterprises-focused banking and financial services company. It offers various consumer credit and deposit products to retail and commercial customers, and is one of the largest companies traded on the Prague Stock Exchange.
A shareholder vote on the merger is expected by the end of this year. No current Moneta shareholder has more than 5% in the bank.
Moscow Exchange to buy 20% in Kazakhstan Stock Exchange
bne IntelliNews
The supervisory board of Moscow Exchange (MOEX) on September 27 approved the acquisition of an equity stake in Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE), Russian Tass news agency reported.
KASE, launched amid a global financial crisis in 2008, suffers from a lack of transparency and a number of barriers to entry for foreign investors, such as the need to hire brokers who possess knowledge of the local language. These obstacles make it highly unattractive for any foreign investor and deter
them from properly setting up shop in the Central Asian country. Moreover, KASE is highly illiquid as local companies normally rely on bank funding, since there are no prospects for raising funds on the KASE. KASE, based in Almaty, has seen its equities trading average hit a mere $11mn this year.
MOEX’s decision to make the stake acquisition follows an agreement signed between MOEX and KASE in April. It will acquire up to 20% of KASE in two stages by end-2019 for a total of RUB338mn (€4.44mn).
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