Bulgaria's Fibank shares up after announcing plan for capital increase

First Investment Bank AD

23/12/2019 09:38

SOFIA, Dec 23 (Reuters) - Shares in Bulgaria's First
Investment Bank's (Fibank)  5F4.BB  gained early on Monday, a
day after the bank announced it would raise 200 million levs 
($113.39 million) to help cover a capital shortfall found by the
European Central Bank.
    The stock rose 10.88% to 3.26 levs at 0847 GMT after opening
 at 2.94 levs.
    Bulgaria's fourth-largest bank needs to increase its capital
buffers after an ECB assessment of six banks found a capital
shortfall at Fibank of 262.9 million euros ($291.37
million). urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N24R5MC
    Fibank plans to offer 40 million new shares at 5 levs per
share. It would consider the issue a success if as few as 4
million shares were sold at the offer price.  The ECB also found
a capital shortfall of 51.8 million euros at a smaller bank,
Investbank.
    Bulgaria, a member of the European Union, hopes to adopt the
euro on Jan. 1 2023.
    Fibank, which has already secured 130 million euros in
additional capital, said it had also privately placed a 30
million-euro bond and offloaded bad loans with a nominal value
of about 538 million levs.
    It said its overall capital adequacy ratio stood at 17.65%
at the end of September. Its CET1 capital ratio was 14.79%,
above regulatory requirements.
    Bulgarian businessmen Tseko Minev and Ivaylo Mutafchiev each
own 42.5% of the lender, which had total assets of 9.6 billion
levs at the end of September. The remaining 15% has been floated
on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange.

($1 = 1.7639 leva)

($1 = 0.9023 euros)

 (Reporting by Angel Krasimirov)
 ((angel.krasimirov@thomsonreuters.com; +359 888 695 510;))