Raiffeisen International will acquire a majority stake of 93.5 per cent of Bank Aval, the second-largest Ukrainian bank. The transaction is subject to approval by the Ukrainian National Bank and other relevant authorities in Ukraine and Austria.

Raiffeisenbank (Bulgaria) intends to open new branches in Assenowgrad, Targowishte and Sofia. Including them, the number of the offices in the country will be more than 70.

Raiffeisenbank is among the most profitable and efficient financial institutions in Bulgaria for the first half of 2005 with a Return on Equity (RoE) after tax of 32,4 per cent.

To start this service, the clients of Raiffeisenbank (Bulgaria) have to fill up an application form, in which an actual mobile number should be specified.

The credit portfolio of the bank for this segment till end of July 2005 is 243 mln BGN which is an increase of 68 per cent in comparison to the end of 2004. Only for the first 7 months of the year Raiffeisenbank lended over 111 mln BGN to small sized companies.

Profit before tax came to € 273.3 million, representing an increase of 58 per cent or € 100.5 million compared to the same reporting period 2004.