Two foreign banks have submitted letters of intent to acquire a stake in state-owned Albanian Savings Bank

Two foreign banks have submitted letters of intent to acquire a stake in state-owned Albanian Savings Bank, local media reported Tuesday. Austria's Raiffeisen Bank and Hungary's Orszagos Takarekpenztar es Kereskedelmi Bank Rt., or OTP Bank, expressed their interest before the Oct. 20 deadline in buying the Savings Bank, bank general director Ardian Kamberi was quoted as saying by the daily Shekulli. Other bank officials confirmed the news, on condition of anonymity, but declined to give other details saying the banks board would make them public on Oct. 25. Albania is seeking to sell a minimum stake of 30 percent and up to 100 percent of the Savings Bank, the largest retail bank in the country. The bank's assets totaled 1.41 billion euros as of June 30 and the bank showed a net profit of 9.8 million euros for the first six months of the year. The bank currently holds about 60 percent of the country's deposits in local currency, the lek, and 27 percent of all hard currency deposits.