BCR Is Austrian

The Austrians at Erste Bank now own the Romanian Commercial Bank, the greatest bank in Romania.

It has been the greatest Romanian privatization transaction, the sum cashed for BCR getting to billions of Euros. The offered price mattered 90% in naming the winning bank. Erste Bank was founded in Austria, but is present in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia and Serbia and has approximately 11 million clients. The Austrian Bank forwarded a letter of intention for the privatization of the House for Savings and Consignations. The Austrians seemed to be the favorites since two days ago. Erste Bank purchased and operates a series of banks in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia and Serbia but failed in taking over the Bulgarian Credit Institution DSK two years ago. The analysts predicted that it would be much easier for Erste to take over BCR. In the day when the two finalists had been announced, the Erste shares’ increased by 0.2%, while the Millenium shares decreased by approximately 8%, because the investors feared of a possible increase in the capital for financing the transaction.

THE DEAL

The Romanian Commercial Bank is the most important bank in Romania. It administrates assets of approximately 9 billion euros. At the end of June, the market quotation was 25% for the assets, 25% for the credits and 28% for the deposits. The clients’ number has increased constantly, reaching 5 million at present, 90% of which are people. Romania still owns 37% of the bank’s shares, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and International Finance Corporation hold a package of 25% plus two shares, and two financial investment companies (FIC) control 31.2 % of the capital. The bank has now 360 branch offices and agencies in the country, covering most of the cities with a population higher than 10,000. The bank has for its clients 15 kinds of credit and ATM cards and more than 1,000 ATM machines in the entire country.

THE FICs WILL STILL BE STOCK OWNERS

The financial investment companies (FIC) will keep their shares at the Romanian Commercial Bank and every company will decide afterwards on the destination of the shares in the future, Sebastian Vladescu, the Minister of Finances, said. The 5 FICs own approximately 30% of the BCR shares, and the bank’s employees own 8%.