Three Kazakh banks approve merger

Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 19

By Elena Kosolapova - Trend: The Shareholders of Kazakh Alliance Bank, ForteBank and Temirbank approved the proposed merger of the three banks into a combined bank, the head of Alliance Bank Timur Issatayev at the press-conference on Nov. 19, Novosti-Kazakhstan reported.

"Today at 10 a.m. the Alliance Bank's claimants voted at the general meeting and supported the plans for restructuring and merger of three banks," he said.

The merger of the banks is expected to complete by the end of 2014 and a joint financial statement is planned to be published for a period ending on December 31, 2014.

"The merged bank will be named ForteBank, the shareholders have not voted for this name, but we are confident that they will support us," Issatayev added.

A major marketing research was implemented before choosing the name, which showed that the brands Alliance Bank and Temirbank were "compromised," according to Issatayev.

He noted that following the merger the combined bank will have its own capital in the amount of 160 billion tenge (180.87 tenge = $1). It will be the third largest bank in terms of capital and the eighth largest bank in terms of assets in Kazakhstan.

In turn the head of ForteBank Guram Andronikashvili said that the future bank will seek to rise to third place in terms of assets among Kazakhstan banks.

Edited by C.N.