June 2023 – As previously announced, in December 2022 Kinstellar advised OTP Bank, Hungary’s largest commercial bank and one of the largest independent financial service providers in Central and Eastern Europe, on the successful acquisition of Uzbekistan’s fifth-largest bank, Ipoteka Bank.
Kinstellar has continued advising OTP Bank to reach another significant milestone in the transaction, as OTP Bank has completed the first closing of the transaction, i.e. the acquisition of a 73.71% stake in Ipoteka Bank from the state.
With the transaction, OTP has become the first foreign lender to participate in the privatisation of Uzbekistan's banking sector. In the next step of the transaction, the remaining shares of Ipoteka Bank held by Uzbekistan's Ministry of Economy and Finance will be purchased in three years. Ipoteka Bank is Uzbekistan's fifth largest financial service provider, active in both the retail and corporate segments. OTP agreed to acquire close to 97% of Ipoteka Bank under a contract signed in December last year.
During this complex, high-value and multidimensional deal, Kinstellar held continued negotiations with not only the Uzbek government, but also with the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
Kinstellar’s team was led by Partner Gábor Gelencsér (Corporate/M&A), supported by a number of team members from the Hungarian and Uzbek offices, and regarding the closing of the transaction in particular by Senior Associates Csenge Koller (Corporate/M&A) and Eszter Takácsi-Nagy (Competition) and Associate Judit Sós (Corporate/M&A) from the Budapest office and Partner Sherzod Yunusov, Associate Jakhongir Azatov and Junior Associate Voriskhon Azamkhujaev from the Tashkent office.