State-owned asset manager Corvinus BHG sold 8.2% of its shares in MBH Bank to the lender in an OTC transaction, reducing its stake to 20.01%, it was announced on December 12.

Details on the exact size of the divested stake or the purchase price were not disclosed. The government did not elaborate on the sale.

MBH Bank, listed in the standard category on the Budapest Stock Exchange, was trading at HUF7,800 (€19) on Wednesday. At this price, the market value of the 22.6mn shares involved in the transaction is estimated at HUF176bn, but according to financial website Portfolio.hu, the actual transaction price may differ from this estimate.

Before MBH was created through the merger of three banks, Corvinus BHG's 30.35% stake was valued at HUF225bn, or HUF52bn for 7% of the shares.

The transaction aligns with MBH Bank's declared strategic goal of enhancing its active presence in the stock market and leveraging opportunities to build business and investor confidence through the public capital market, the lender said in a statement

The creation of MBH Bank was initiated in 2020 through the merger of three smaller entities—Budapest Bank, MKB Bank, and the Takarek Group, which included savings cooperatives—and finalised in 2023.

The merger of state-owned banks was part of a government-supported drive to consolidate the banking sector and create a national champion, a rival to market leader OTP, thus boosting the share of domestic ownership in the banking sector to over 50%. The same strategy was followed by Viktor Orban’s radical rightwing government in other strategically important sectors, such as media, banking and energy.

After the full integration in 2023, shareholders of Magyar Bankholding, acting as a supervisory umbrella organization, became direct owners of the newly unified MBH Bank. Major shareholders included state-owned Corvinus BHG, reflecting a strategic alignment with Hungary’s broader economic goals.

MBH Bank carried out an organisation restructure earlier this month as Magyar Bankholding was dissolved through a demerger, and 10 successor companies were established in its place. The ownership of six companies, mostly asset managers, exceeded the 5% reporting threshold. These included: Corvinus BHG (28.26% before the transaction), Zenit Asset Management (25.79%), CEE Horizon Capital (11.82%), CEE Paramount Equity (10.70%), Pinnacle Asset Group (6.21%) and Hungary Apex Investments (6.21%).