Page 31 - bne_newspaper_March_9_2018

Weekly Lists
March 9, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 31
bne:Banker EC presses Slovenia on
NLB privatisation
The European Commission (EC) has said that the privatisation of Slovenia's largest lender Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB) remains essential to prevent possible future credit misallocation and ensure its long-term viability.
Slovenia had committed to sell 75% of the bank in a restructuring plan that served as a basis for the European Commission's approval of state aid to the bank in the 2013 bailout by 2017, but scrapped a planned IPO last June amid a dispute over the pricing of the offer and an ongoing lawsuit over Yugoslav-era deposits
in Croatia. Now, it is unlikely the sale of the bank will happen by this June, when the country will hold parliamentary elections, as a significant number of Slovenians heavily oppose sales of state- owned assets.
The Azerbaijani government has finished taking over $2.2bn worth of external debt owned by the country's largest bank, International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), APA news agency reported on March 5 citing an annual report of the cabinet of ministers.
State-owned IBA, the largest lender in the country, defaulted on $3.3bn worth of foreign obligations in May 2017, prompting a debt restructuring process that saw its obligations swapped for dol- lar bonds issued by IBA and the government. Of the $3.3bn, Azer- baijan's sovereign oil fund Sofaz owned $1.1bn in debt, and Baku angered some of the lender's creditors by using the Sofaz debt to influence the group decision in its favour.
Azerbaijan completes $2.2bn carve-out from IBA