Bulgaria's Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) has approved the buyout Belgium's KBC Bank plans to offer minority shareholders in Bulgaria's EIBank, the commission said in a statement on February 13 2008.

KBC has said it intends to delist the bank from the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, but is required to offer minority shareholders a chance to sell their shares before that. A total 2.17 per cent of EIBank's shares are now owned by minority shareholders, while KBC has 75.58 per cent and its partner Tsvetelina Borislavova holds the remaining 22.25 per cent.

KBC priced its offer at 110.34 leva per share, the same price it paid in September 2007, when it agreed to buy its 75% stake from Borislavova and investment fund Novator, an investment vehicle owned by Icelandic magnate Tor Borgolfson.

Earlier in 2007, KBC bought Bulgarian insurance company DZI. Through the networks of DZI and EIBank, the Belgian group planned to offer its concept for bank-insurance, offering bank, insurance and investment products and services simultaneously.