TALLINN, Jan 13 (LETA--BNS) -Latvia's Citadele bank has beet granted permission by the the Estonian Competition Authority to acquire the Baltic units of the leasing company UniCredit, whose leasing portfolio in the Baltic countries amounts to 850 million euros.

Citadele has entered into a binding agreement with UniCredit S.p.A. to acquire100 percent of the shares in UniCredit Leasing, including its Estonian and Lithuanian branches, along with its 100 percent owned subsidiary UniCredit Insurance Broker, including its Estonian branch.

The closing of the acquisition subject to mandatory approvals is expected inthe first quarter of2020.Following the acquisition, Citadele's aggregate net leasing loans will exceed 1.1 billion euros. As a result, Citadele will become one of the three largest players in the Latvian leasing market and will significantly strengthen its footprint across the Baltics.

The acquisition of UniCredit's Baltic leasing operationsis consistent with Citadele's long-term aim to become the leading financial services provider in the Baltics for both individuals and small and medium-sized businesses.

Citadele is a Latvia-based bank offering retail, private banking, asset management, lending, leasing and other commercial banking services. Its subsidiaries and branches operate in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Switzerland. Citadele is the third largest bank in Latvia by number of clients, and second by number of business clients.

Citadele's subsidiaries in Estonia are the Estonian branch of AS Citadele banka and OU Citadele Leasing Factoring.

Unicredit Leasing SIA is a company of the listed European financial group UniCredit S.p.A.

© Pakistan Press International, source Asianet-Pakistan