NOA financial institution to merge with ABI Bank

2025-08-08 09:14:00, Ekonomi CNA

The non-banking financial institution NOA has initiated merger procedures with the American Investment Bank (ABI Bank). Since December 2024, NOA has been owned by another financial institution, Tranzit, which is also the sole shareholder of ABI Bank.

The assembly of the sole shareholder of the company NOA has assessed that it is in the best interest of NOA's activity to carry out the merger by absorption with ABI Bank.

The shareholder has assessed that NOA's activity will benefit from full operational flexibility, expansion into larger lending segments, opportunities to expand the consumer credit portfolio with credit products and credit cards, to provide mezzanine loans to small and medium-sized businesses, as well as guaranteeing financial support and higher capital to further expand this segment.

The merger between the two companies will become effective after being approved by regulatory authorities, such as the Bank of Albania, the Competition Authority or tax authorities.

ABI Bank will be the successor of NOA in all contracts, agreements, actions and relationships to which NOA is a party, existing or continuing, in Albania or abroad, starting from the date of the merger.

However, this transaction is not expected to bring any change in operational activity for clients, as NOA will continue to be used as the brand of microfinance-related activity, according to the "ring fenced" merger principle (NOA's activity will operate separately within the ABI Bank company).

The financial institution NOA originated in 1998, as a savings and loan company (Albanian Partner for Microcredit), while in 2001 it was transformed into a joint-stock company.

As a result of ownership changes, the company changed its name to Opportunity Albania in 2008 and to NOA in 2010, when the shares were purchased by NOA Holding, a company registered in the Netherlands. On December 31, 2024, NOA was officially acquired by the non-banking financial institution Tranzit, which is also the owner of ABI Bank.

NOA is licensed by the Bank of Albania as a non-bank financial institution for lending. According to audited financial statements, at the end of 2024 NOA had total assets of 12.6 billion lek, mostly loans to the private sector of the economy. The net loan portfolio in the same period was 10.8 billion lek.

NOA closed 2024 with a net profit of approximately 498 million lek, up 24% compared to the previous year.

In 2023, NOA became the first company to successfully conduct a public offering of securities and their listing on the stock exchange, with the issuance of corporate bonds worth 500 million lek.

The American Investment Bank is the seventh largest bank in the Albanian banking sector, with 145 billion lek in assets (about 6.7% of the market) as of the middle of this year.

ABI is being confirmed as one of the banks with the highest levels of profitability in the banking sector. According to unaudited data published by the Albanian Banks Association, for the first half of 2025, ABI reported a net profit of 2.1 billion lek and a return on equity, averaged on an annual basis, at the level of almost 34%.

The non-bank financial institution Tranzit was licensed by the Bank of Albania in 2010, with activities mainly in the collection of non-performing loans. In 2015, Tranzit entered the banking market with the acquisition (through the NCH Capital shareholder group) of Credit Agricole Albania, today the American Investment Bank./ Monitor.al