Hungary to sell stake in savings bank Takarekbank (updated)

MBH Jelzalogbank Nyrt

18/12/2013 15:54

(Adds comment from OTP Bank, more details) BUDAPEST, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Hungary's government plans to sell its majority stake in the savings bank Takarekbank in an open, international tender, according to a government decree published in the official gazette, Magyar Kozlony. The deadline for bids is Jan. 15, 2014. Bids will be evaluated by March 15, according to the decree. OTP  OTPB.BU , Hungary's biggest bank, has not decided whether to bid but will look at the possibility, an OTP spokesman said. OTP Chief Executive Sandor Csanyi said in a Forbes interview before the tender was announced that OTP was interested in every bank that is for sale but would not jeopardise its capital and liquidity position.  ID:nL5N0JK1MM  The state holds an over 35 percent stake in Takarekbank through state development bank MFB and a further 19.3 percent stake via the state-owned Hungarian Post. Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government took control of Hungary's savings-bank sector earlier this year and overhauled it with measures that included a capital injection of at least 100 billion forint.  ID:nL5N0FB1A2  A top official of the sector, Tamas Vojnits, told Reuters in October that savings banks planned to at least double lending to small and medium-sized firms in coming years as part of a government drive to boost economic growth.  ID:nL5N0IE3DR  With 1,700 branches, savings banks have by far the biggest network in Hungary, but they control only about 5 percent of the overall lending market. Orban has often said that half the banking sector should be in Hungarian ownership. Foreign-owned banks have been cutting exposure since the 2008 crisis, when a lending bubble burst. Takarekbank's main competitors include OTP and local units of Austria's Raiffeisen  RBIV.VI  and Erste  ERST.VI , Belgium's KBC  KBC.BR , Italy's Unicredit  CRDI.MI  and Intesa Sanpaolo ISP.MI  and Germany's Bayerische Landesbank  BLGGgi.F .Ÿ (Writing by Gergely Szakacs; Reporting by Krisztina Than; Editing by Larry King) ((krisztina.than@thomsonreuters.com)(+36 1 327 4745)(Reuters Messaging: krisztina.than.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: HUNGARY TAKAREKBANK/STATE