Oman Fund 'Expected to Make Proposal about KTB Soon' - Bank Owner

CorpBank major shareholder Tsvetan Vasilev has announced that a consortium of investors led by a state fund of the Sultanate of Oman is to present an offer how to help the bank.

Vasilev, whose Corporate Commercial Bank (KTB) was placed under special supervision by Bulgaria's central bank BNB on June 20, wrote in his personal blog that he needed customers and employees' support for the plan which the State General Reserve Fund (SGRF) of Oman is expected to reveal.

He described developments at the bank, which BNB is planning to deprive of license (apart from nationalizing its subsidiary Credit Agricole Bulgaria) due to serious violations found by independent auditors, as a plot created against him and KTB which, in his words, was aided "by the entire state machine".

A bank run in June forced Bulgaria's fourth-largest financial company to request conservatorship from BNB on its own.

Vasilev has since then argued KTB fell victim to "malicious rumors" fomented by politicians and key state institutions including the Prosecutor's Office.

The attack on his bank followed a reported rift between Vasilev and controversial Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) lawmaker Delyan Peevski, whose appointment as state security head last June opened the floodgates of months-long protests.

Their alliance was considered to be behind a number of key Bulgarian enterprises and also behind a media empire formally controlled by Peevski's mother, Irena Krasteva.