Erste Card Club d.o.o. officially takes over Diners Club International® franchises in Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro
Zagreb, 10 March 2017 - The transaction was completed by which Erste Card Club d.o.o. (ECC), with registered office in Zagreb, acquired 100% of ownership over the companies Diners Club International Belgrade d.o.o., based in Belgrade, and Diners Club International Mak d.o.o.e.l., based in Skopje, and indirectly also over the companies Diners Club International Montenegro d.o.o., based in Podgorica, and DC Travel, based in Belgrade. Approval of the relevant regulatory bodies was obtained prior to the completion of the transaction, and the formal and legal requirements stipulated by the Agreement on the Purchase and Sale of Business Shares between Luxembourg-based SKB Capital S.A. and ECC, signed in November 2016, were fulfilled.
ECC has thus taken over exclusively the right to issue and accept Diners Club cards, i.e. the responsibility for further development of the Diners Club brand and future operations in the territory of the Republic of Serbia, the Republic of Macedonia and in Montenegro. Diners Club International as the franchisor has approved and supported the transfer of the licence to ECC and the future development of operations in the aforementioned markets.
“We are happy that the transaction was successfully completed within the timeframe announced when the Agreement was signed in November 2016, which serves as an extra confirmation of the seriousness of our intentions. We can now focus all our efforts on our primary objective of further developing Diners Club operations in the markets of Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro, and ensuring the superior quality of the services we provide to our clients”, Marija Radonic, Deputy President of the Management Board of ECC responsible for regional operations, said on the occasion. “Our highly developed business model and successful operation in the markets of Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania, where we arrived before, are a strong guarantee of our resolve and our dedication to the accomplishment of the objectives we set for ourselves in line with our strategy of further strengthening of our regional presence in Southeast Europe”, Radonic concluded.
Obrad Sikimic, who has been at the helm of Diners Club in the territory of Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia for more than 25 years, working actively on positioning the Diners Club brand in these countries, will serve as President of the Supervisory Board at DCI Belgrade for the next five years. ECC will present its detailed business strategy in the markets of Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro to the public in the months to come.
Erste Card Club d.o.o. is a credit card company with over 550,000 issued credit cards in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia. It is a part of one of the biggest banking groups in Central and Eastern Europe, Erste Group, and its partner in this region, Graz-based Steiermärkische Sparkasse. Apart from the Diners Club franchise in Croatia, which is one of the ten largest and most successful such franchises in the world, ECC also owns the Diners Club franchise in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia, and it is present in the markets of Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania in the segment of card acceptance.