AIB acquires stake in Bulgarian bank

AIB has entered into an agreement to acquire a 49.99% stake in Bulgarian-American Credit Bank (BACB) for €216m.

BACB is a specialist provider of secured finance to small and medium sized companies in Bulgaria and AIB is buying the stake from BACB's majority shareholder the Bulgarian-American Enterprise Fund.

BACB provides loans to small and medium-sized companies in Bulgaria. BAEF is a private US company set up in 1991 under legislation enacted by the US Congress to promote development of the economy in Bulgaria. It was established in 1996 and listed on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange in March 2006.

The company earned a net income of €27m last year and had total assets of €358m and shareholders’ equity of €80m at the year end.

Eugene Sheehy, CEO of AIB said: “This investment is part of AIB’s strategy for Central and Eastern Europe which involves acquiring and investing in businesses at reasonable valuations in targeted high growth markets and which operate in areas where AIB has core expertise (in this case, SME lending). BACB represents an exciting growth opportunity for AIB and we look forward to working with the excellent management team who have built up the business. We believe that AIB can add significant value to the business in the future”.