Baltic States – CIS, Banks, Financial Services

SMP Bank announced the acquisition of the controlling stake yesterday, May 8.

As reported to LETA, in November 2006, owners of SMP Bank bought a large interest in Multibanka, and announced that the planned to increase SMP Bank's stake in Multibanka to 80%. The deal was planned to be accomplished by the end of 2007.

Previously experts estimated that the value of the deal could be USD 25 million to USD 40 million.

Multibanka's former owners made the decision to sell the bank in the wake of the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) statement that Multibanka may be involved in money laundering transactions. In June 2006, however, FinCen decided to lift its accusations, permitting Multibanka to maintain correspondent accounts in the United States.

As B&B reports, this is already the fourth Latvia's credit institution that belongs to Russian investors. Owners of Latvijas Biznesa banka are the Russian bank Bank Moskvi, Latvijas tirdzniecibas banka belongs to MDM-Bank, and a 75.92% stake in Latvijas Krajbanka belongs to the Lithuanian Snoras, controlled by the Russian bank Konversbank.