MeDirect investors warn new Czech owners over alleged €2 million pledge

A group of 31 Maltese MeDirect Bank investors has filed a judicial letter against the bank’s new Czech owners, alleging they reneged on commitments made during the acquisition of the Maltese bank and warned that they will be seeking damages linked to an alleged €2 million compensation package.

The judicial letter, filed before the First Hall of the Civil Court, is directed against Banka Creditas a.s. and its parent Creditas Group, the Czech banking group that acquired MeDirect in 2025 following regulatory approval from the European Central Bank.

The Maltese plaintiffs are former holders of Medifin Preference Shares, an investment product whose dividend payments were suspended in January 2020 before the shares were eventually redeemed in September 2025.

They claim they suffered significant losses of income as a result.

According to the court filing, while Creditas was negotiating the acquisition of MeDirect from its former owner, private equity firm AnaCap, representatives of the Czech bank approached the investors with a proposal intended to resolve outstanding disputes relating to the Medifin investment.

The claim alleges that Creditas offered investors the opportunity to reinvest through a new five-year bond carrying a 6.5 to 7% annual return, together with an additional compensation package worth approximately €2 million spread over a minimum investment period of three years.

In exchange, investors would waive any claims they had against Medifin and MeDirect.

The Maltese investors argue that they relied on these representations and suspended legal action while the acquisition proceeded.

However, they allege that after the European Central Bank approved the takeover and the transaction was completed, Creditas unilaterally withdrew the commitments it had previously made.

Instead, according to the judicial letter, investors were offered different bond terms that no longer included the promised compensation package and did not reflect the conditions that had originally been presented.

The lawsuit accuses Creditas of breaching its commitments, acting in bad faith and making deceptive representations that induced investors to waive legal claims against Medifin and MeDirect.

The plaintiffs are asking Creditas to honour the alleged commitments, compensate them for their losses, pay legal interest, and bear all associated legal costs.

Copies of the judicial letter have also been formally notified to the Malta Financial Services Authority and the Central Bank of Malta.

Contacted by The Shift, a spokesperson for Creditas Group said the company does not, as a matter of standard practice, comment on ongoing legal matters or confidential discussions with counterparties.

“However, we reject any suggestion that Creditas Group has acted improperly or failed to comply with its contractual or legal obligations,” the spokesperson said.

MeDirect takeover

The dispute casts a shadow over one of the largest banking acquisitions involving Malta in recent years.

MeDirect’s former owner, AnaCap Financial Partners, signed an agreement in late 2024 to sell MDB Group, the parent company of MeDirect Bank (Malta), to Prague-based Banka Creditas. The acquisition required approval from the European Central Bank and other banking regulators before being completed in September 2025.

The Czech banking group described the purchase as its first major expansion into Western Europe and announced plans to inject fresh capital into the Maltese bank to accelerate its growth.