Hungary may combine the sales of two commercial banks that the Government has acquired from foreign owners with the possibility of listing MKB on the Budapest Stock Exchange, Minister for National Economy told Bloomberg in an interview.

The country is selling its stake in MKB and Budapest Bank to comply with the conditions of an agreement concluded with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Erste Bank last February. Under the MoU, the EBRD and Hungary are to purchase stakes of 15 percent each in Erste Bank Hungary.

The Minister said that the deal may be completed until June 2016.

In line with conditions set out in the MoU, the Government is committed to significantly lower the bank tax in 2016-2017 and continue reducing it in 2018-2019. In the MoU, the Hungarian Government also expressed its commitment to the banking sector and underlined that it did not intend to take direct or indirect majority ownership stakes in systemically important local banks and is committed to transferring all direct and indirect majority equity stakes it currently held in local banks to the private sector within the next three years.

As Minister Varga told Bloomberg, “One scenario in the case of the privatization of MKB is to do it via the stock exchange,” adding that the Government could not “exclude the option of putting our stake in Budapest Bank on the market along with the sale of MKB.” However, he did not elaborate this latter option.

The Hungarian Government bought MKB from Bayerische Landesbank AG and Budapest Bank from GE Capital in 2014. The National Bank of Hungary, in charge of MKB restructuring, has spun off the bank’s bad loan portfolio in 2015.

In the interview, Mihály Varga also announced that the Government may buy further services providers in order to ensure low energy prices. “I cannot exclude that there will be further acquisitions,” he said, as the Government wants to strengthen the “non-profit” part of the energy industry.

Hungary has bought several natural gas and electricity companies from EON AG, RWE AG and Engie SA (formerly known as GDF Suez SA).

(Ministry for National Economy)