Swedish investment bank HQ Bank said today that its rival Carnegie would buy it after the financial supervisory authority last weekend revoked its licences, forcing it into involuntary liquidation.
'The board of HQ has decided to sell all common shares in its subsidiary HQ Bank and HQ Fonder to the Carnegie group,' the company said in a statement.
The deal to sell HQ Bank for 268 million kronor (€29m) had been approved by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority. The authority said the sale would help secure funds belonging to the beleaguered bank's approximately 20,000 depositors.
However, it stressed that HQ for the time being officially remained in liquidation.
Carnegie said HQ Bank's operations would be integrated into its own and that HQ Fonder (funds) would become a subsidiary, adding that all of HQ's some 300 employees would move over to Carnegie.
'The merged company becomes the Nordic region's clearly leading independent investment bank,' Carnegie said in a statement, adding that it would guarantee HQ Bank's liquidity and its clients' deposited funds.
HQ Bank, which manages around 60 billion kronor (€6.3 billion) welcomed the deal.
Carnegie, which was taken over by Sweden's National Debt Office in late 2008 after the authorities threatened to withdraw its operating licence over risky dealings, had tried to purchase HQ on Sunday, a day after all that bank's licences were revoked for breach of banking regulations.
But the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority however stopped Carnegie's initial plan to buy HQ, and the bank was on Monday forced into involuntary liquidation.
