The shareholders of Invalda INVL, the leading investment management and life insurance group in the Baltic region, on Wednesday approved a deal with Šiaulių Bankas to merge their retail businesses. That same day, a meeting of the shareholders of Šiaulių Bankas also approved the merger.
“Having obtained shareholders’ approval, we are moving forward with the merger of the retail businesses of Invalda INVL and Šiaulių Bankas. The two institutions’ teams are already hard at work so that the transaction strengthens the bank and creates more added value for the existing retail customers of the bank and INVL,” Darius Šulnis, the President of Invalda INVL, says.
“We believe that a renewed and growing bank will be much more attractive to institutional and private investors, and that this transaction will benefit the shareholders of Šiaulių Bankas and Invalda INVL,” Darius Šulnis adds.
Invalda INVL and Šiaulių Bankas signed an agreement on the merger of part of their retail businesses on 22 November 2022. The equity value of the retail business merger transaction is EUR 40.16 million.
To finalise the transaction, Šiaulių Bankas will make a targeted issue of shares for purchase by the Invalda INVL group at the price of EUR 0.645 per share. Completion of the deal would give Invalda INVL 9.39% of the share capital of Šiaulių Bankas, and the second- and third-pillar pension funds and mutual funds that Invalda INVL currently manages in Lithuania as well as its life insurance business would become part of the Šiaulių Bankas group.
Under a supplementary agreement signed on 31 January 2023, the life insurance business in Latvia and Estonia may be excluded from the transaction at Invalda INVL’s discretion and with the prior approval of Šiaulių Bankas’s Management Board and Supervisory Council, provided that this part of the business does not remain within the Invalda INVL group after completion of the transaction.
After the closing of this and other announced planned share acquisitions, the Invalda INVL group’s equity stake in Šiaulių Bankas would increase from 8% at present to approximately 20%.
Completion of the merger of Šiaulių Bankas’s and Invalda INVL’s retail businesses is planned in late 2023. The Lithuanian Competition Council’s permission to complete the transaction has already been obtained, but other approvals of regulatory bodies are also required.
Following this transaction, the Invalda INVL group will remain active in the management of private equity and alternative investments, provide Family Office services in the Baltic countries, and manage second- and third-pillar pension funds in Latvia.
The extraordinary general meeting of Invalda INVL’s shareholders also approved extending collaboration with the audit firm KPMG Baltic, selecting it to audit the company’s financial statements for the year 2022 and envisaging the possibility of appointing the firm to audit the financial statements for this year and/or 2024.
About Invalda INVL
Invalda INVL is a leading Baltic investment management and life insurance group. Growing and developing with an open approach, it creates well-being for people through its work. The group’s companies operate in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and serve over 300,000 private and institutional clients from the Baltic region and abroad. Those clients have entrusted the Invalda INVL group with the management of more than EUR 1.75 billion of assets in a variety of asset classes including pension funds, mutual funds and life insurance commitments as well as individual portfolios, private equity and other alternative investment activities.
The shares of Invalda INVL have been traded on the Nasdaq Vilnius stock exchange since 1995.