The Austrian Raiffeisen group, which purchased Romania's Banca Agricola (Agricultural Bank) in 2001, is now planning to participate into the privatisation of the Savings Bank (CEC), aiming to consolidate its position on the Romanian market. It also hopes to become the number two in Romania, ahead of BRD (Romanian Development Bank) - Groupe Societe Generale.
"Raiffeisen is prepared to fight Erste Bank for CEC, and the experience we gained after acquiring Banca Agricola will help us with this project," Herbert Stepic, RZB vice-president and president of Raiffeisen International (the entity controlling the group's subsidiaries in the region) told Ziarul Financiar.
Banking sources have recently pointed to Erste Bank's growing interest in the privatisation of CEC, with the Austrian bank already putting together a team to deal with this operation.
Although it has made great efforts to restructure Banca Agricola, Raiffeisen is determined to seize this new opportunity, in order to strengthen its position in Romania.
"We are well aware of the problems at CEC, with its vast network that lacks IT support, but our experience with Banca Agricola will be of great help. We are interested in gaining access to a different market segment and CEC can provide this," Stepic stated.
The Raiffeisen official is confident that the CEC privatisation will be completed before the sale of BCR (Romanian Commercial Bank), Romania's largest bank, considering the pressure being applied by the European Union.
Prompted by the EU, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, the Romanian Government released the privatisation procedures for CEC last month, creating a shortlist that includes six investment banks. In September, one of these banks will be selected to advise the government on the sale of CEC.
Before it can officially enter the competition over CEC, Raiffeisen plans to overtake BRD and to become number two in the banking system, in terms of asset value.
"I am convinced that we will overtake BRD in the first part of next year, considering the results logged in the first half of 2004. In the fight against the large international banks, our only chance is to move as fast as we can, to claim market segments, and by attracting customers that have never dealt with a bank before," Herbert Stepic said.
According to unofficial data, Raiffeisen is closing in on BRD, with a market share of more than 10% of all banking assets. BRD's share, in comparison, has continued to drop slightly, down to almost 12%. At the end of last year, Raiffeisen Bank claimed the third place among the Romanian banks, ahead of CEC, whose market share is constantly shrinking under pressure from the competition.
How can Raiffeisen realise its plans to become number two in Romania and to take over CEC?
"We have decided to conduct another capital increase at Raiffeisen Bank Romania. As long as the business is profitable and as long as there is room for more profits to be made, we will continue to invest in Romania. We will not stop at 200 million euros or even at some larger amount," Stepic maintained.
razvan.voican@zf.ro
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