Nomura International plc said in a statement Friday it is preparing a legal challenge to the sale of the Czech Republic's third-biggest bank, Ivesticni a Postova Banka (IPB) to CeskoSlovenska Obchodni Banka (CSOB).

Normura International indirectly owns 46.3R0of IPB and had been negotiating with Italian bankUniCredito to sell its interest before the Czech government and Czech National Bank placed an administrator to take control of IPB on June 16. CSOB signed a purchase agreement with the administrator bought in to run IPB on June 19. Two sets of international accountants, to be appointed, must settle the purchase price. Normura International, while shying away from using the word expropriation, believes its shareholder rights have been ignored in the rapid sale of IPB. The government and national bank imposed an administrator saying that IPB's expected results, due to be announced today, did not reflect the bank's true situation and losses would be so large it could not fulfill its capital-adequacy requirements.CSOB, in which Belgian bank KBC has a 82.3R0stake, said Friday it is certain of the legal grounds of its agreement with the government and administrator. Normura International has been looking to sell its indirect participation in IPB for around Kcs3 billion ($78.2 million), what it paid the government on partial privatization two years ago. Combining CSOB and IPB would create one of the biggest banks in Central and Eastern Europe with around Kcs600 billion in assets.