Innova Capital sells Meritum Bank to Alior Bank

Half of the purchase price will be paid in cash, while the other half will be paid in new shares issued by Alior Bank. Innova and Wolfensohn Capital Partners (WCP) will take home around half of the deal value, PLN 173m, to be paid out in shares, while EBRD will cash out.

WCP's investment in Meritum was made through its WCP Cooperatief vehicle, which took a 24.1% stake in the bank, while Innova's 49.9% of the shares were held in the Innova Financial Holding Fund. EBRD's ownership stood at 23.9% before the sale.

The deal is in line with a broad move toward consolidation in the Polish banking industry, where a number of larger banks are predicted to target smaller banks.

The deal is subject to shareholder approval.

Previous funding
Innova and WCP backed Meritum in 2007. Innova committed a further €6m in funding when EBRD first invested in Meritum in December 2010 through a €14m investment.

Company
Meritum is a Polish bank based in Gdansk, focusing on services to individual customers, as well as small businesses with revenues of up to PLN 10m a year.

People
Krzysztof Kulig is a managing partner at Innova, while Wojciech Sobieraj is CEO of Alior Bank.

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• Topics
• CEE
• Exits
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• Poland
• Innova Capital
• EBRD