Western Europe's best bank transformation 2017: KBC

The €610 million sale of United Bulgaria Bank (UBB) says much about the work National Bank of Greece has done to re-orientate its business model over the last year. These are praiseworthy, if somewhat belated, actions by the Greek bank. But the UBB deal says even more about the benefits of earlier actions by the acquiring bank to refocus on core countries and businesses.

The UBB acquisition demonstrates how far the transformation of KBC has come. After a decade in which it sold 30 companies around the world, it is now the one making acquisitions. 

The UBB deal furthers the strategy KBC’s sales have implemented elsewhere: to fine tune an integrated bank and insurance group focused on a tight-knit group of European markets, with an emphasis on big market shares in smaller countries (usually with a population size similar to Belgium). 

UBB is Bulgaria’s fourth biggest bank and rebalances KBC’s business in the country, where previously it owned a top-tier insurer without a top-tier bank.