Bank is looking for strategic investor

VILNIUS (BNS) - The Lithuanian Development Bank (LVB) has sent out invitations to 16 Western European banks to consider becoming strategic investors in the LVB.

"All the shareholders have given their approval to this document, though it is still informal," LVB president Juozas Aliukonis told BNS.

Currently, the Nordic Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Lithuanian government hold stakes of 29.63 percent each in the stock of the LVB. The German investment and development agency DEG controls a 11.1 percent stock package.

According to the LVB, only the EBRD has definitely decided to sell their holdings. Shares could be sold by another three investors.

"A strategic investor might want either a 33 percent, a 51 percent or a 66 percent stake in our stock - these are open questions on which no decisions have been reached," Aliukonis said.

He stated that it is planned to have the shares sold and the bank reregistered as a commercial one before the end of the year.

The LVB would regard as an appropriate investor any bank whose long-term credit rating, on the Standard & Poor's scale, is no lower than "A." The ratings of other agencies should conform to this same grade.

Even after being reregistered as commercial in the future, however, the LVB will not be a universal bank and will not accept deposits.

Over the first half of this year, the LVB - now governed by special legislation - netted audited profits of 400,000 ecu ($450,000).