Banks, Financial Services, Funds, Investments, Latvia, Legislation, USA

Tim Collins. Photo: Wikipedia

The Latvian government has accepted the U.S. fund Ripplewood Holdings offer for acquisition of Citadele. It stipulates that Ripplewood Holdings will acquire 25% of Citadele shares, while 50% will be acquired by currently undisclosed investors, and 25% by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

After the acquisition of the bank, the investors are planning to focus on the local market by assisting small and medium-sized enterprises. The next step will be the bank's growth in the region.

"Latvia is a country that has only recently joined the eurozone, it is a member of the European Union and NATO, and has the fastest growing economy in Europe. Citadele is a great platform that will help us sprout business in Latvia, and also in the region afterwards. We believe that this is a huge opportunity for us. Geo-politically, Latvia is also a very important country," Collins told LETA.

The first priority proposed by the investors concerns the local market. They believe that Latvia's local market offers a lot of opportunities to help consumers and assist the small and medium-sized enterprises in growing. "It is important for the entire economy that the local market has a strong financial institution," Collins stressed. Growth within the region will be the next step toward development.

The investors also plan to make sure that Citadele shares are quoted at the stock market so that the Latvian government would be able to preserve a portion of the bank's shares in its possession, however, due to the European Union regulations, it is currently impossible.