CCF sells off 21% Lombard shareholding at Lm2m profit

Lombard Bank Malta informed its shareholders late last week that Crédit Commercial de France SA has decided to sell off its 21 per cent shareholding in Lombard to the Swiss-based Banca Unione di Credito.

As a result, Banca Unione di Credito will be acquiring over one million Lombard Bank shares at the price of Lm3.958 apiece, compared with the Lm2.10 Crédit Commercial de France had purchased the Lombard shares for back in February 1998.

Given Lombard’s share prices at the time of buying and selling, Crédit Commercial de France is looking at a share sale profit of Lm1,939,544.

Lombard Bank shares’ average price on the Malta Stock Exchange as of last Friday stood at Lm3.904.

Banca Unione di Credito, a member of the FIAT Group, was founded in 1919 with its main headquarters in Lugano, Switzerland and focuses its operations primarily on commercial banking and asset management.

Interestingly, Crédit Commercial de France is, in fact, 98 per cent controlled by HSBC Holdings – a shareholding it had acquired back in April 2000 - and is one of France’s largest commercial banks.

More commonly known as CCF, the banking giant provides investment banking services for French and international institutions, finances acquisitions, deals in government securities, and participates in privatisations of state-owned businesses in Central Europe and the former Soviet Republics.

CCF had acquired its shareholding in Lombard Bank in February 1998. Through its Swiss holding company CCF Holding (Suisse) SA, it purchased shares previously held by Malaysian entrepreneur Robert Tan Hua Choon and also took a seat on the board of directors of Lombard Bank.