Canadian company acquires Bawag Malta Bank for €91 million

Feb 05, 2016

MFC Industrial Ltd., a Canadian company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, has bought Bawag Malta Bank Ltd for €91 million.

Bawag has been fully-licensed in Malta since 2003 and was previously owned by Bawag P.S.K. of Austria.

The bank has now been renamed MFC Merchant Bank Ltd and will begin operations as part of the MFC Group, after the transaction received the approvals of the European Central Bank (ECB) and Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA). It will focus on trade and structured finance and merchant banking going forward.

Finance Minister Edward Scicluna said: “We welcome MFC Merchant Bank Ltd as the latest development in the Maltese banking sector. Malta offers investors in the financial services sector not only a guarantee of good fiscal and economic governance as well as political and economic stability, but also the services of highly-qualified, experienced professionals in the financial, accountancy, IT and legal spheres.”

MFC is a finance and supply chain group, which provides supply chain services to industrial companies around the world. The group specialises in a wide range of industrial products such as metals, minerals, steel products and alloys, chemicals and wood products.

The group has business in Europe, the Americas and China.

With the acquisition of Bawag Malta Bank, the MFC group will be able to offer a range of regulated structured finance solutions, including factoring, forfeiting, inventory finance, trade finance, bank guarantees and other service to its international finance and supply chain customers and suppliers.

These banking services strategically supplement the MFC Group’s core franchise in the international supply chain business, which includes structuring of cross-border transactions, logistics, risk management and strategic consulting. Moving forward, its goal is to become a premiere regulated specialty bank in Europe with a focus on trade finance and factoring.

While it will not be active in retail or commercial banking markets and does not intend to take deposits from local sources, the bank will provide its infrastructure and services in trade finance and factoring to Maltese customers and suppliers. To a lesser extent, it will also engage in merchant banking activities.

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