Austria’s Steiermärkische Bank und Sparkassen has notified the management board of North Macedonia’s Universal Investment Bank (UNI Bank) that it intends to launch a takeover offer for all subscribed ordinary shares in the bank for about €69mn, UNI Bank said on September 10.

This is another significant step towards the consolidation of the Macedonian banking sector, similar to when Steiermärkische Bank und Sparkassen previously acquired and merged Ohridska Banka.

UNI Bank said in a bourse filing that its board received the notification from Steiermärkische Bank und Sparkassen that the proposed takeover price is €126.3766353, per share, payable in the denar equivalent, which is about MKD7,770.

The planned offer is conditional on obtaining several regulatory approvals, including approval of the concentration by the Montenegrin Competition Authority and the Serbian Competition Authority, as well as an approval decision from the European Central Bank (ECB).

In addition to these foreign approvals, the takeover will be subject to the relevant approvals from domestic authorities and institutions in North Macedonia.

Once all required foreign approvals have been obtained, Steiermärkische Bank und Sparkassen will submit an application to North Macedonia’s Securities and Exchange Commission for approval of the takeover offer and the accompanying prospectus, UNI Bank said.

Under the takeover law, if any of the required foreign approvals are not obtained, the announced intention to acquire UNI Bank will be considered withdrawn and no takeover offer will be made.

If a competent foreign institution rejects or refuses to issue one of the required approvals, the acquirer must notify the relevant authorities in accordance with the law. The same applies if any of the approvals is not issued within 12 months of the announcement of the intention to acquire UNI Bank.

There were no changes in UNI Bank’s shareholder structure during 2025. Two Bulgarian individuals, Ceko Todorov Minev and Ivajlo Dimitrov Mutafchiev each held 36.45% of the bank’s ordinary shares, while the remaining 27.10% was owned by minority shareholders.

UNI Bank’s share capital is divided into 545,987 ordinary shares, each with a nominal value of MKD1,000 (€16.3). Based on the €126.3766353 per-share offer price, the Austrian bank’s takeover offer values the entire share capital at approximately €69mn.

Steiermärkische Sparkasse has been present in North Macedonia since 2008 and currently has total assets of almost €2bn in the country. Following the acquisition of UNI Bank, its total assets in North Macedonia are expected to reach around €2.8bn, giving it a market share of approximately 17%, Sparkasse Bank said in a statement.