According to an interview in Reuters, Legal Director of OTP Bank, Ivan Zsingor has stated that the proposition to abolish one of the by-laws that limits foreign shareholders' total voting rights to less than 50%, would not make a foreign takeover any easier. He said that if someone wanted to buy OTP shares up to now, the rule could have been avoided by creating a company registered in Hungary.
Our view: OTP Bank has left unchanged the point concerning the limitations of voting rights exercised directly or indirectly by any individual shareholder, which may not exceed 25% (or in case the voting rights of another shareholders exceeds 10% it may not exceed 33%) of the total voting rights represented by the shares entailing voting rights at the AGM. OTP Bank has been seen as an attractive target for a takeover, however we agree that a complete buyout would remaine difficult without the management's approval.