Unicredit guard to Estonia and submit a bid for Luminor Bank by competing with the largest Hungarian credit institution, Otp Bank Nyrt, to acquire the Baltic institution, according to Bloomberg. Luminor, headquartered in Tallinn with branches in Latvia and Lithuania, is the third largest bank in the Baltics and Estonia. Currently it is owned by Blackstone which at the beginning of the year started a process of selling the bank, trying to obtain approximately 1,2 times the book value with the sale, again according to Bbg. At the end of December, Luminor had about 1,8 billion euros of equity on its balance sheet at the end of December, according to documents.
Blacksone had purchased it in 2019 for a billion
The asset manager had purchased a majority stake in the bank for a billion euros in 2019 from Nordea Bank Abp and DNB Bank Asa and has since acquired the remaining share of Nordea, rising to 80%. DNB Bank still holds a minority stake. At the moment it is not clear which stake Unicredit intends to acquire, whether the entire stake in the hands of Blackstone or only what is necessary to take control of Luminor.
The operation would be part of Unicredit's strategy to grow abroad in the high-growth countries of Eastern and Northern Europe. On 12 June, the European Commission approved, pursuant to the EU merger regulation, the acquisition of exclusive control di Alpha Bank Romania by the institute led by Andrea Orcel. Brussels concluded that the notified operation would not raise competition concerns, given the limited market positions of the companies resulting from the proposed operation.
