06 May 2019 - Montenegro’s Agency for the Protection of Competition has provided a positive opinion on the request for merging Crnogorska komercijalna Bank (CKB) and Societe Generale Bank Montenegro, and forwarded it to the Central Bank of Montenegro. Central Bank of Montenegro is going to make the final decision on the request for merging based on collected data, while the opinion of the Agency for the Protection of Competition is also one of the conditions even though it is not mandatory.
Vice-governor Miodrag Radonjić has been dealing with the merger issue as governor Radoje Žugić excluded himself from the decision to prevent a conflict of interest (his daughter, Jovana, has been working in CKB since July 2018).
On 28 February, OTP Bank Plc. announced that the Montenegrin subsidiary of OTP Bank, CKB, had signed an acquisition agreement on purchasing 90.56% shareholding of Societe Generale for 40,5 million EUR. According to the law, it is not possible to merge these two banks without prior approval of the Central Bank of Montenegro.
If the request is approved, CKB will purchase Societe Generale Bank via Montenegro Stock Exchange.
With a market share of 11.5%, Société General Bank Montenegro is the fourth largest bank in the Montenegrin market and as a universal bank is equally active in the segment of citizens and enterprises.
In the meantime, Société General Bank Montenegro continued to service the population and corporate clients with a high level of quality and commitment while preparing a smooth transition for clients while ensuring the stability of their relationship with the bank.
