The portfolio consists of corporate customers of Danske Bank in Latvia and includes existing loan, leasing and guarantee agreements.
This transaction is Luminor’s first credit portfolio acquisition and "reflects Luminor’s strategic expansion in corporate lending within the Baltics, as well as its commitment to being a trusted banking partner for local businesses," the bank said in a release.
Commenting on the transaction, Head of Corporate Banking of Luminor in Latvia Ilze Zoltnere said: “Our acquisition of this high-quality corporate loan and customer leasing portfolio marks an important step in our growth journey and our commitment to support local businesses. This strategic diversification in our service offering in Latvia is underpinned by Luminor’s ambition to be the preferred partner for local people and businesses while achieving best-in-class customer satisfaction.”
All customers, whose contracts will be transferred to Luminor, will be contacted directly by the company.
As previously reported by LSM, Denmark's Danske bank was formerly active in the Baltic states but decided to quit the market following the exposure of a massive money-laundering scandal in Estonia.
Luminor is the third-largest provider of financial services in the Baltics, providing banking and financial services to help individuals, companies and institutions grow in its home markets of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Luminor has some 900,000 clients, 2,355 employees, and a market share of 16.3% in deposits and 17.4% in lending as at the end of September 2020. Luminor has total shareholders’ equity of 1.6 billion EUR and it is well-capitalised with a CET1 ratio of 22.0%.
