Hansapank to buy Lithuanian bank

VILNIUS/TALLINN (BNS) - Estonian bank Hansapank submitted the only acceptable offer for the state-owned shares in Lithuanian savings bank Taupomasis Bankas, the privatization commission announced Oct. 2.

The commission is not going to comment on the content of the offer until the end of the privatization process. Hansapank similarly declined to comment.

Lithuania wants to sell its 90.73 percent share in the bank, Lithuania's second largest after Vilniaus Bankas in terms of total assets and the largest still owned by the state.

The international rating agency Fitch IBCA has assigned Taupomasis Bankas a long-term rating of BB, short-term rating of B and support rating of 2T.

Taupomasis Bankas controls 35 percent of the Lithuanian deposit market and has the country's largest banking network with 425 branch offices.

The bank's audited profit in 1999 was 16.16 million litas ($4.04 million).

Hansapank's Lithuanian subsidiary Hansabankas started operation in 1999, ending the year with an audited loss of 3.9 million litas.

As of the start of July, Hansabankas controlled 1.69 percent of the Lithuanian banking market's total assets and 1.62 percent of the loan market.