S E B completes Baltic expansion through 32% ownership in Vilniaus Bankas

S E B completes Baltic expansion through 32% ownership in Vilniaus Bankas On 18 November, 1998 Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken announced that discussions were ongoing with Vilniaus Bankas of Lithuania and that S E B had entered into strategic partnerships with Eesti Ühispank of Estonia and Latvijas Unibanka of Latvia. These three banks already have a pan-Baltic co-operation agreement. S E B has now entered into a co-operation agreement with Vilniaus Bankas, pursuant to which S E B will become a strategic investor in Vilniaus Bankas, aquiring 32 per cent in the bank through a new issue of shares. The aim is to develop an increasingly close co-operation between S E B and Vilniaus Bankas involving the exchange of know-how, the development of products suitable for the Baltic markets and collaboration in Nordic-Baltic cross border business. Vilniaus Bankas is the largest privately owned bank in Lithuania with total assets of LTL 2.5 billion (SEK 5.1 billion) as at September 30, 1998. Vilniaus Bankas had a net income for the first 9 months of LTL 47 M (SEK 96 M) and approximately 950 employees. The bank has 14 branches and co-operation with the post in 30 branches. Vilniaus Bankas' market share for deposits amounts to 21 per cent and for lending to 28 per cent. In order to cement the partnership S E B will subscribe to a directed issue of 4.8 million shares in Vilniaus Bankas at a price of LTL 46 per share. The directed issue will give S E B an ownership of 32 per cent of capital and votes in Vilniaus Bankas. As a consequence of the ownership in Vilniaus Bankas, S E B will nominate two members to the Supervisory Council of the bank. S E B´s investment amounts to SEK 450 M. In connection with the strategic partnership, S E B has also entered into a shareholders' agreement with Swedfund Financial Markets AB. Swedfund currently holds 9.7 per cent of capital and votes in Vilniaus Bankas. An extra shareholders' meeting in Vilniaus Bankas will be held end of December 1998 to approve the directed share issue to S E B. Lars H Thunell, President and CEO of S E B: - As we have stated earlier, these Baltic partnerships are in line with our strategy to develop S E B into the leading financial services institution in Northern Europe, which includes the Baltic countries. We are very satisfied with having reached an agreement also with Vilniaus Bankas which is the leading commercial bank in Lithuania. Together with Ühispank and Unibanka this will give us and the three banks the possibility to expand our Nordic-Baltic cross border business considerably. The acquisition is estimated to have marginal effects on S E B´s capital ratios and a marginally positive effect on earnings per share. The co-operation agreement and the acquisition of shares are conditional upon the approval of a shareholders' meeting of Vilniaus Bankas to be held end of December 1998 as well as receiving necessary regulatory approvals in Sweden and Lithuania. Ühispank of Estonia On 26 November, 1998 an extra shareholders' meeting of Ühispank approved the directed issue of 15 million new shares to S E B. As soon as the necessary approvals are given S E B will thus subscribe to the new shares. For further information, please contact: Lars Gustafsson, Executive Vice President of S E B and Head of S E B Strategic Planning, +46-8-763 80 03 or Gunilla Wikman, Head of S E B Group Communications, +46-8-763 81 25 or Lotta Treschow, Head of Investor Relations, +46-8-763 95 59. ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1998/11/27/19981127BIT00040/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1998/11/27/19981127BIT00040/bit0002.pdf