Moldovan cabinet signs pre-contract on sale of new stocks of commercial bank

Chisinau, 22 June /MOLDPRES/ - The Public Property Agency in the name of the Moldova’s government today signed a pre-contract on the sale of 41.09 per cent of the new shares issued by Moldova-Agroindbank with the international investors consortium EBRD, Invalda INVL, Horizon Capital.

Economics and Infrastructure Minister Chiril Gaburici described the agreement signed as “an important one.” “Our intention is to carry through the process of transparentization and strengthening of the banking sector. The today’s event will have a positive impact on the national economy. With the big stockholders, quality shareholders, the banks from Moldova should fully resume the duty of financial intermediation. This means that they must provide loans for the economic growth and modernization,” the minister said.  

The EBRD Director for Financial Institutions in Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus and Western Balkans, Henry Russel, highlighted the efforts by the National Bank of Moldova to transparentize the shareholders and the adoption of the mechanism of blocking the non-transparent stockholders in December 2017. “The 2018 year was a very good year in this respect. In January, Banca Transilvania bought the controlling stake of Victoriabank; presently, we have our plan on Moldova-Agroindbank, which will bring more transparency for the concerned bank, which will act in favour of people,” the EBRD representative noted.    

At a meeting on 20 June, the government allowed the Public Property Agency to take possession of 41.09 per cent of Moldova-Agroindbank’s stocks, which, in the long run, might be bought by a consortium of investors, made up of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and two investment funds -AB Invalda INVL (Lithuania) and Horizon Capital (USA).     

The state sells to investors this single block at the purchasing price of the stocks, 540 million lei, plus the cost borne when making the transaction.

The executive committee of the National Bank of Moldova (BNM) on 19 June approved the purchasing by the international consortium of investors of the block of stocks of 41.09 per cent of the registered share capital of the commercial bank Moldova-Agroindbank.  

The consortium is made up of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Horizon Capital, as manager of the investment fund created by well-known international financial institutions, such as Western NIS Enterprise Fund (Founded by the U.S. Congress through USAID), International Finance Corporation (IFC, World Bank Group), the Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO), German Investment Corporation (DEG) and the French Development Agency (PROPARCO), as well as Invalda INVL – a rated investment company from Lithuania, with experience in the financial and banking sector. The consortium is set to carry out the procurement scheduled through an investments company specially set up to this end – HEIM PARTNERS Ltd, registered in the United Kingdom and headquartered in London.    

BNM in 2016 obliged two groups of shareholders of Moldova-Agroindbank, which acted jointly and bought a substantial quota in the bank’s registered share capital worth 1.09 per cent, without having a preliminary written permission of the National Bank, to sell in a three-month period the stocks purchased. Given that the concerned shares were not sold in the term set, they were cancelled and other new shares were issued; as a result, a block of stocks of 41.09 per cent was put for sale more times.    

The sale of the block of stocks of Moldova-Agroindbank is a commitment of Moldova’s authorities before the International Monetary Fund.

(Reporter V. Bercu, editor A. Raileanu)