FHB commercial bank receives operating licence

In May, PSZÁF approved the establishment of FHB Kereskedelmi Bank, to be set up with net assets of Ft 6 billion, including registered capital of Ft 2 billion and capital reserves of Ft 4 billion, according to earlier information. FHB Mortgage Bank was to own 90% of the bank, while its subsidiary FHB Szolgáltató will hold 10%. Setting up a commercial bank unit was part of FHB's midterm 2006-2010 strategy announced in February, which is designed to transform the mortgage bank into a financial group with five subsidiaries, including a commercial bank, a property-appraisal and real-estate management unit, a leasing company, a life-annuity provider and a services company, an already existing unit. FHB has since established all but the leasing unit, with life-annuity unit FHB Életjáradék beginning operations in early November. FHB had unedited consolidated IFRS nine-month earnings of Ft 5.64 billion(EUR 21.8 million), a decline of 13.2% year on year, which the bank earlier attributed primarily to Q2 and Q3 spending on strategy-related investments. Consolidated total assets rose 15.6% to Ft 539.3 billion in the twelve months concluding on September 30, 2006. Hungary's privatization agency APV has recently called a tender for an advisor to sell the state's 54.11% stake in FHB. Shareholders with a stake in excess of 5% include Allianz Hungária which acquired 8.0086% of FHB this year, and Silvermist Estate, holding 7.5757% of the shares. (Mti-Eco)