Bulgaria’s banking mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market is on track to break the lull as Allied Irish Banks (AIB) prepares to offload its 49.9% stake in the Bulgarian American Credit Bank (BACB) by March 2011, Dnevnik wrote.

Meanwhile, US-based Gramercy Emerging Markets Fund will seize this opportunity to try and exit its 30.92% investment in the Bulgarian lender.

AIB’s plans were reported by a number of Irish media and have also been announced in the company’s first-half earnings report. By March 2011, the Irish company will also attempt to shed its equity stakes in AIB Group (UK), Poland’s BZWBK and US-based T Bank Corporation.

Financial details were not disclosed. Gramercy’s sell-off intentions were divulged to Dnevnik by Angel Gyaurov, who represents its subsidiary Arco Capital Management on the Bulgarian market.

“Nowadays there is hardly anyone who would buy a minority stake in a bank. It is logical to speak about the sale of a controlling stake, which includes the holdings of both AIB and Gramercy,” he said. Gyaurov added that the US fund had been looking to abandon its Bulgarian investment for some time but the move would be impossible without adding the Irish company’s stake given the market conditions.