Bank Austria Creditanstalt (BA-CA), Austria's largest bank, continuing its eastwards expansion, said Thursday it aims to take over at least 85 per cent of Kazakhstan's ATF bank, according to dpa. BA-CA announced plans to eventually take over 100 per cent of ATF, Kazakhstan's third largest bank for a total of 1.7 billion euros (2.28 billion dollars). A share purchase agreement with private shareholders was signed on the same day. The transaction will be completely financed by existing internal resources, the Austrian bank said. ATF reports total assets of 6.3 billion euros and a share of 11.8 per cent of the local market and is also active in insurance, pension funds and leasing business. It operates subsidiary companies in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and the Russian region Omsk. BA-CA is part of the European UniCredit Group, and responsible for Central and Eastern Europe.
