After acquiring control (76.85%) of the Lithuanian credit union Kredito Unija last year, in the hope of becoming a European digital bank specializing in providing mortgages and consumer credit, the Blender company announced this morning (Tuesday) that since the banking license was not received by the date set in the agreement – it is exercising its right to cancel it and to receive back the consideration she paid according to it and which was deposited in trust, in the amount of about 5 million Euros (about NIS 18.3 million).
Last month it became clear that the Lithuanian Central Bank will not grant the union the license until January 1, 2023, which is the deadline for it to join the central credit union that the union was supposed to join in order to ensure its continued activity. Blender also expressed hope that this decision of the central bank does not prevent the union from continuing the current banking licensing process until March 2023, but now they have come to the conclusion that there is no point in continuing the process.
Blender had high hopes for this acquisition in order to become a European digital bank, when the acquisition tripled the scope of its operations in Europe. Giving up the deal now will not be an easy decision. The transformation into a digital bank was supposed to be a significant milestone for it since its IPO on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in January 2021, when in the last year the company significantly expanded its operations in Europe.
At the same time, the company announced that its activities will focus on Israel, which is the company’s profit center, and at the same time it will work to reduce unprofitable activities and focus on profitable growth engines, at the same time as investing in growth and growth in the field of digital credit solutions. In the meantime, the controlling owners of the company express confidence in the company’s growth capabilities and have injected NIS 10 million as part of a rights issue in which the company raised NIS 12 million. This amount was defined by Blender as a “qualifying” loan, intended to support the car credit activity.