Tirana, March 17 (AENews) – Albania’s smallest bank, Dardania, was sold in January 2005 for EUR5 million , declared in Tirana its General Manager Beqir Mezelxhiu.

The main buyer, Francesco Mariano Mariano from Italy had offered to buy 95 percent of its shares. Banca Popolare di Puglia asked for just 5 percent of shares. For the moment little is know of Mr. Mariano Mariano. A search using the Google search engine found the name in only two pages. According to these pages, Mr. Mariano Mariano was an adviser for an Italian leasing company, named Biella Leasing.

For the moment, Bank of Albania has not approved the sell-of. One of the competitor in the bid to bye the bank, Kasabank of Slovenia, protested about the biding procedures. Milazim Abazi, the representative of Kasabank in Kosova told reporters in Pristine: “We are waiting the announcement for the cancellation of the bid from Bank of Albania”, Mr. Abazi said. “The winner does not fulfill the Albanian regulatory rules”.

Dardania Bank was funded in 1993 as a commercial bank owned by the Government of Kosova in exile. The bank’s activity has been restricted only for activities relating to the government of Kosova. Its actual owner and founder is the ex-Prime Minister of Kosova Bujar Bukoshi, declared that he intend to spend the revenue from sell-of for charitable activities.

Dardania bank faced a strong decrease of activities during 2003, which resulted in a 26.7 percent fall of its assets. Gross income fell from Lek400 million in 2002 to Lek46 million in 2003. During the same year its expenditures also decreased by 90 percent. Their net profit was Lek8.5 million, (EUR63,000). Shareholders equity at end of 2003 was Lek559 million, (EUR4.2 million). Data for the banks activities during 2004 are not available for the moment.