Egg gets Zebank

Done deal

Egg has completed the acquisition of the French online bank, Zebank, after getting the thumbs-up from Banque de France.

Egg paid E5.5 million (£3.5 million) for the business - E2.5 million (£1.6 million) less than first expected.

This was due to a E2.5 million correction made between Zebank's draft accounts and its final audited accounts.

Zebank - owned by Groupe Arnault and Dexia - was France's first e-bank when it launched in February 2001.

According to Egg, Zebank customers are "up-market and metropolitan" with the majority of them living around Paris.

At the end of March, Zebank had 89,000 customers and 144,000 accounts.

News of the deal was confirmed in January after mounting press speculation.

Egg reckons it will attract one million punters in the first three years and predicts it will make a profit by the end of 2004. ®