Bank of Valletta announced that Banco di Sicilia SpA (BdS) had informed BOV that the BdS will be seeking the consent of the competent authority, pursuant to Section 13 (1)(g) of the Banking Act 1994, to transfer the qualifying shareholding BdS holds in BOV to its holding company, Capitalia SpA.

In a company announcement issued yesterday, BOV said the shareholding of BdS in BOV consists of 16,128,000 ordinary shares of Lm0.25 cents each fully paid up, and represents 14.55 per cent of BOV’s total equity.

Commenting on this announcement, BOV’s Company Secretary, Victor J Cardona, said that the transfer of the shareholding was being undertaken as part of a wider internal reorganisation of shareholding participations within the Capitalia Group. “There will be no change in the ultimate beneficial owner of these shares following this transfer,” noted Victor Cardona who also commented that as such he did not believe that the transfer would have any impact upon BOV.

This transaction is targeted to be finalised prior to Friday.