The European Central Bank (ECB) has suspended the voting rights of Alta Pay Group and Diplomat Pay in Addiko Bank due to their failure to notify regulators about their combined acquisition of a significant shareholding. The announcement, made on the Austrian bank’s website, revealed that the two shareholders jointly acquired a 19.62% stake in Addiko Bank—comprising 9.63% held by Alta Pay and 9.99% held by Diplomat Pay.
According to the notification received by Addiko Bank, the suspension of voting rights will apply to any further shares acquired by these investors. The ECB is expected to request the appointment of a commissioner to manage these suspended voting rights from the commercial court in Vienna.
Alta Pay had originally sought to acquire a 29.59% stake in Addiko. This year, Miodrag Kostić, through Agri Europe Cyprus, and Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB) also entered the competition, with NLB recently raising its initial offer. Kostić’s company, which already holds 9.99% of Addiko shares, aims to acquire an additional 17%, with its bid accepted for 4,000 Addiko shares. NLB’s goal is to purchase at least 75% of Addiko’s shares, and Addiko’s management has pledged its shares to the Slovenian buyer. In late July, it was reported that Alta Pay had not obtained the necessary regulatory approval for its acquisition of a 6.87% stake from the Swiss investment company DDM Holding. Consequently, DDM retained its 6.87% stake, as noted in Addiko Bank’s regulatory filing reviewed by Bloomberg.
Alta Pay responded by claiming it had met all necessary conditions for the stake purchase and stated that DDM lost its court case against the transfer of shares to Alta Pay in Swiss courts. Alta Pay purchased the 6.87% stake on February 1 but faced issues with contract compliance. Alta Pay alleged that DDM had refused to honor the agreement and even initiated legal action to block the transfer of shares to Alta Pay.
Despite these issues, Alta Pay planned to sell the shares to Diplomat Pay if DDM was legally compelled to transfer them. In May, Addiko announced that Diplomat Pay had conditionally acquired the 6.87% stake from Alta Pay on March 20. However, Addiko later noted that Alta Pay could not transfer the shares to Diplomat Pay.
