Volksbank Malta managing director Herbert Skok has announced that the parent company, Österreichische Volksbanken AG, has successfully concluded a deal to increase its stake in Investkredit Bank AG to 97 per cent of the shares.

Investkredit Bank AG, with total assets amounting to approximately e23 billion, specialises in corporate finance and is listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange. It was previously owned by a number of large Austrian banks.

Last Wednesday, Österreichische Volksbanken-AG (ÖVAG) took over the shares of Investkredit Bank AG at a purchase price of e141,00 per share. The shares were previously held by Raiffeisen Zentralbank AG (RZB), Raiffeisen Landesbank Niederösterreich-Wien AG (RLB NÖ-Wien) and Bank Austria Creditanstalt AG (BA-CA).

Following the purchase, ÖVAG now holds over 97 per cent of the shares of Investkredit Bank AG. The purchase agreement was officially signed on 13 July at the premises of Österreichische Volksbanken-AG.

ÖVAG purchased the RZB-shares of 18.52 per cent of the share capital of Investkredit Bank AG. Additionally, the shares of 4.82 per cent held by RLB NÖ-Wien and the BA-CA shares of 28.23 per cent were also acquired by Österreichische Volksbanken-AG.

At the end of December 2004, ÖVAG initiated the takeover of Investkredit AG with the purchase of 41.5 per cent of the Investkredit-equity stake from BAWAG/PSK, Erste Bank and Wiener Städtische Versicherung. Deutsche Bank acted as a consultant to Volksbank for this transaction.