The Delta Bank Group has announced that is is acquiring a 100% stake in Astra Bank (both based in Kyiv).

"On July 18, 2013, an agreement to sell 100% in public joint-stock company Astra Bank was signed between Alpha Bank А.К. (Greece) as a seller and a company affiliated with public joint-stock company Delta Bank, as a buyer. The deal will be finalized after receiving relevant permits from the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine and National Bank of Ukraine," Delta Bank told Interfax-Ukraine on Friday.

As reported, in late April 2013, Swedbank finalized a deal on the sale of its subsidiary bank Swedbank to the key shareholder in Delta Bank, Mykola Lahun. In May 2013, Swedbank was renamed Omega Bank. Lahun is the owner of Kreditprombank.

Astra Bank was founded in late 2007. Its only shareholder is Greece's Alpha Bank. In 2008, Alpha Bank bought Astra Bank from the former coal industry minister, Viktor Topolov, for EUR 13 million. However, the financial crisis forced Alpha Bank to sell the Ukrainian bank.

According to the National Bank of Ukraine, as of April 1, 2013, Delta Bank ranked seventh, Kreditprombank ranked 20th, Swedbank ranked 59th and Astra Bank was 81st among the 175 banks operating in Ukraine in terms of overall assets, which were worth UAH 34.746 billion, UAH 11.025 billion, UAH 2.86 billion and UAH 1.852 billion respectively.