BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary and the European Bank For Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) are expected to close a deal to buy into Austrian Erste Group's (VI:ERST) Hungarian bank arm by the end of the second quarter, the chief of the unit said.
The parties will make the final calculations in the next few days, Chairman and CEO Radovan Jelasic was quoted on Sunday by the Hungarian national news agency MTI as saying.
He said a condition of the deal was a further cut in Hungary's bank tax, therefore it would be completed by the end of June, after parliament passes next year's tax rules.
The plans are unchanged, and the Hungarian government and the EBRD each plan to buy a 15 percent stake, Jelasic said.
They agreed on the transaction in February last year, and originally wanted to complete it by the end of 2015.