TITL: Erste Bank raises the money to buy BCR
Adrian Mirsanu / Vlad Nicolaescu
Erste Bank yesterday announced a subscription price for its capital increase of 45 euros/share, with the total volume of the issue amounting to 2.65 billion euros, the largest transaction ever conducted on the capital markets in Austria.
The day before the bank had revealed that the subscription period for the three billion-euro (3.7 billion dollars) public offering aimed at securing funding for the acquisition of Banca Comerciala Romana would be finalised early.
"We will pay from our own pockets. We have money made from profit. We are a successful bank," Michael Mauritz, Erste''s spokesman told ZIARUL FINANCIAR.
Erste signed the contract for buying the controlling interests in BCR, 61.88%, last month, for which it will have to pay 3.75 billion euros by this April. It has a staff of ten people in Romania monitoring BCR''s operations until the transaction is completed. BCR yesterday announced 205m-euro profit for 2005. "Erste is bound to not sell BCR in the next three years, the contract says. We bought the bank because we want it to become an important part of our group. It is part of our strategy," Mauritz said.
As for the privatisation contract, it is now being looked at by the financial investment companies, which own about 30% in BCR together.
"We are studying the privatisation contract for the time being. It largely includes what we requested. It, however, refers to a series of appendices we have not yet seen," stated Petre Szel, chairman of Muntenia Invest, the company that manages SIF Muntenia. He did not care to specify what the requests of the SIFs were or what they agreed upon with the state, due to a non-disclosure agreement.
The results announced by the bank do not include the additional shares issued for those situations when some buy orders are not filled for which there is a buying option. Therefore Erste''s capital was increased by 24% (excluding the option for the additional shares), from 486.3 million euros to 604.2 million euros. According to a release of the bank, the pre-emption rights were exercised 60%, and the shares for which the pre-emption right was not exercised were oversubscribed by about 1.7 times.
Excluding the dividends proposed for 2005, 55 cents per share, the price set by the bank entails a 0.7% discount from the quote on the stock exchange on Wednesday, that is 45.85 euros.
The market capitalisation of the bank will go up from 11.3 billion euros to 13.9 billion euros. The trading of the new shares on the Vienna Stock Exchange is expected to begin today.
Until the dividends for 2005 are disbursed, the new shares will be traded under a different identification number than the old shares. Erste Bank and DIE ERSTE osterreichische Spar-Casse Privatstiftung decided to suspend the operations with their own shares for 180 days. DIE ERSTE osterreichische Spar-Casse Privatstiftung, the main shareholder of Erste Bank that owned 32.2% before the transaction, submitted a subscription request for 15.6 million shares and currently holds 30.5% considering the option for additional shares will be fully exercised.
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