Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) announced its plans to buyout a minority stake in Raiffeisenbank Austria. Raiffeisenbank Austria is the Croatian unit of RBI. Three of RBI's own shareholders currently own the stake in the business. RBI is the second biggest bank in Eastern Europe. It is owned by regional cooperative banks in Austria.

RBI spokeswoman Susanne Langer told Bloomberg by phone that RBI wanted to purchase the 25% stake it does not yet own in the Croatian unit from Raiffeisenbank Zagreb Beteiligungsgesellschaft. The deal would most likely happen at the end of 2013. Last year, RBI also acquired minority the shares of its Hungarian, Czech and Slovak units. 

RBI's newly-appointed Chief Executive Officer Karl Sevelda planned to boost his firm's capital so that it would comply with regulations set by the European Union. Bloomberg reported that failure to follow the new EU rules could force banks to deduct the capital of banks where they were not the full owners. For RBI, the challenge would be to increase its financial capacity without diluting its current investors, Bloomberg reported.