Sale of Komercijalna banka is in sight

BELGRADE - The sale of Komercijalna banka, where the government is the biggest shareholder, is in sight and should be completed by 2017, head of the National Bank of Serbia department for financial institution monitoring Djordje Jevtic has said.

"The privatisation is in sight. Certain activities to that end are under way. The end of the process is expected by 2017, while keeping in mind the agreement between Serbia and the strategic partners within Komercijalna banka," Jevtic said at a conference on insurance on Wednesday, which was organised by NIN and sponsored by Tanjug.

Komercijalna banka is the leader in Serbia when it comes to foreign currency sasvings accounts and it is ranked second in terms of its share in the total assets of the banking sector in Serbia.

The bank has recorded profits and growth in the past 5 years significantly above average for Serbia, and it has a market share of 13 percent.

The government is the biggest shareholder of the bank, with 42.59 percent of ownership, followed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Financial Corporation, DEG from Germany and Swedfund from Sweden.

DUNAV OSIGURANJE COULD BE PRIVATISED BY YEAR'S END

The privatisation of Dunav osiguranje, Serbia's largest insurance company, should begin by the end of this year with the selection of a privatisation adviser, says Dejan Hadzic, senior adviser at the Ministry of Finance.

"The state intends to privatise Dunav as soon as possible, but it is a process that cannot be ended quickly," Hadzic said at the conference on the insurance sector in the wake of the floods that hit Serbia a year ago.

Nationalising the predominantly socially-owned Dunav osiguranje would be a...