Two Serbian bankers, Miodrag Kostić and Davor Macura, compete for Addiko Bank AG

Just a few days after the financial holding Agri Europe Cyprus, a company owned by one of the largest Serbian businessmen Miodrag Kostić, announced its intention to acquire about 17 percent of the ownership stake in Addiko Bank AG, which would increase Kostić’s stake in Addiko to about 27 percent, reportedly around 30 percent of the stake in the Austrian bank was swiftly acquired by another Serbian banker – Davor Macura, owner of Alta Pay Group.

The information unofficially published by Bloomberg Adria has not yet received official confirmation from either Alta Pay Group or the Vienna Stock Exchange, where Addiko shares have been actively traded since the beginning of last week. According to that information, Alta Pay Group had purchased 9.63 percent of Addiko shares by the end of last week, but also secured the purchase of an additional twenty percent.

Alta Pay Group, which is referred to as an ‘electronic money institution’, evolved from a currency exchange business established in 2008. Ten years later, it began acquiring ownership stakes in Jubmes Bank, later renamed Alta Bank, of which it is now the sole owner. The group also took over the payment institution EKI Transfers, thereby becoming a strategic partner of Western Union for the markets of Serbia and Montenegro. Allegedly, Alta Pay Group’s intention is not to acquire a majority stake in Addiko, but what the intention is – remains unknown.

On the other hand, Miodrag Kostić has never hidden his intention to position himself as one of the leading bankers in the regional market. He owns the Serbian AIK Bank, which has become the second-largest banking group in Serbia since it officially took over Eurobank Direktna a few months ago, with a 13 percent share of the total assets of banks in that market. A year ago, Kostić also took over the Serbian branch of Sberbank, and he has long controlled the Slovenian Gorenjska Bank. The holding company Agri Europe Cyprus also includes M&V Investments and GB Leasing.

In several transactions over the past two years, Kostić’s company Infenity Management Limited acquired a 9.99 percent ownership stake in Addiko Bank AG, thus becoming its largest individual owner. It was recently announced that Agri Europe is offering to purchase about 17 percent of the ownership stake in Addiko Bank through a public takeover bid at a price of 17.5 euros per share. However, since Addiko’s share on the Vienna Stock Exchange reached 17.95 euros by the end of last week, it is very likely that Kostić’s offer will not achieve the expected result.