First Offer for RBI´s Hungarian Subsidiary

Politics ♦ Published: January 6, 2014; 22:30 ♦ (Vindobona)

The partly nationalized Hungarian lender Szechenyi Bank is interested in the Hungarian subsidiaries of the Austrian banks Erste Group and Raiffeisen Bank International.

First Offer for RBI´s Hungarian Subsidiary / Picture: © Raiffeisen Bank International AG / S. Klimpt

In mid-November 2013, the second-largest lender in CESEE announced to withdraw from Ukraine. At that time, CEO Karl Sevelda stressed that RBI will keep its operations in Hungary in spite of the obvious difficulties. Sevelda: „We have invested a lot in Hungary. For RBI, the presence in Hungary has much more value than the presence in Ukraine.”

A few weeks later, RBI did not…