The shareholders of Raiffeisen International Bank-Holding have approved the merger of Raiffeisen International and Cembra Beteiligungs. The transferring company Cembra consists essentially of the corporate customer business, together with the associated shareholdings, spun off from Raiffeisen Zentralbank Osterreich (RZB).
The merged company will operate as Raiffeisen Bank International as of the merger’s entry in the commercial register, which is expected to take place in the fourth quarter of 2010.
At their respective general meetings, the shareholders of RZB and Cembra approved the spin-off of RZB’s corporate customer business and the associated shareholdings, and their transfer to and absorption by Cembra.
Those business segments and shareholdings associated with RZB’s role as the central institution of the Austrian Raiffeisen Banking Group are not impacted by these steps and will remain in their entirety in RZB, said Raiffeisen International.
Raiffeisen International’s shareholders also agreed to increase the total number of shareholder representatives on the supervisory board from seven to 10.
Herbert Stepic, CEO of Raiffeisen International and future CEO of Raiffeisen Bank International, said: “By granting their approval, our shareholders have clearly voiced their belief that this merger provides the best means of maintaining and even further expanding Raiffeisen’s strong positioning in CEE and in the Austrian corporate customer segment.”