Online bank ZUNO operating in the Czech Republic and Slovakia will have a new owner ABH Holding S.A. (ABHH). The contract on the sale was successfully signed. ABH Holdings S.A. is a privately owned Luxembourg-based conglomerate and Alfa-Bank Ukraine majority shareholder.
ABH Holdings S.A. stands as the parent entity of the group of companies (collectively the Alfa Banking Group) that is involved in banking and financial services business in the Russian Federation, the Netherlands, UK, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Cyprus and Belarus. In December 2014, total consolidated assets of ABHH amounted over US $47.2 bln (IFRS) as of the end of 2014.
As ZUNO press-office informed Roomian.org, the ownership change in ZUNO will have no impact on the clients in the Czech Republic and Slovakia where ZUNO will continue to offer its services and products. ZUNO remains a stand-alone and fully regulated Austrian bank with headquarters in Vienna.
The new owner declares the interest in investing capital into the further growth and expansion of ZUNO. ABHH has a long-term interest in developing banking business in Europe and ZUNO represents an ideal platform for such expansion.
“I am very happy that we have managed to find a new and strong owner for ZUNO. The ownership change will enable us to further strengthen and grow the business in Slovakia and the Czech Republic – two markets that we remain fully committed to. In addition, the change will open up opportunities for us to evaluate expansion into new products and markets,” Oyvind Oanes, Chief Executive Officer in ZUNO, says.
“We are very excited about what ZUNO has already achieved since it was set up in 2010 and its further future potential. ZUNO is a full service retail internet based bank which currently operates in two markets, the CR and Slovakia. Whilst we anticipate supporting ZUNO to grow its customer base across these territories, we believe ZUNO also has strong potential to grow both its product offering, and its geographic reach, into other European markets. At Alfa Banking Group we have a strong track record of investing for the long term and supporting our businesses to grow. We look forward to ZUNO joining the Alfa banking group and being part of our growth strategy and we are committed to investing new capital in ZUNO to drive this strategy forward”. Petr Aven, the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Alfa Banking Group, says.
The sale of ZUNO by its current owner Raiffeisen Bank International is still subject to approval by the financial authorities. ZUNO will continue to operate with the same brand and the current management.
Information on ABH Holding
ABH Holdings S.A. is a privately owned Luxembourg-based conglomerate focused on utilizing its financial and intellectual resources, management and investment expertise to manage value-driven investments in the global banking sector. It stands as the parent entity of the group of companies (collectively the Alfa Banking Group) that is involved in banking and financial services business in the Russian Federation, the Netherlands, UK, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Cyprus and Belarus.
Its subsidiaries collectively have а branch network consisting of 966 offices employing almost 42.000 people who serve over 16.7 million clients.
Information on ZUNO bank
Online bank ZUNO commenced its operations in 2010 in the Slovak Republic, which was followed in mid-2011 by the Czech Republic.
The bank improves its results continuously from 2010 up to now. It is caused by rising sale of loan products. ZUNO currently belongs to the top the chart among Slovak and Czech banks in the perspective of offered interest rates for refinancing. The interest rates for loans refinancing start from 6,9 % p.a.
ZUNO has never been in a better shape than now – with a customer portfolio of more than 250.000 customers, 750 MM EUR in deposits, 70 MM EUR in loan volume and around 200 employees.
