Erste Bank, the future majority shareholder of Banca Comerciala Romana, is considering negotiating with the five SIFs over a price to buy their about 30% stake in the bank, Andreas Treichl, Erste Bank chairman told ZIARUL FINANCIAR.
"I have not met with the SIF representatives yet and I do not know what they expect, but to the extent they are willing to negotiate a price, it is not unlikely that we will strike a deal," Treichl said.
He had mentioned in a different context that the 2.9bn-euro capital increase would leave Erste with enough money for smaller acquisitions once the 3.75bn euros for the 61.8% in BCR had been paid.
Through the privatisation contract Erste Bank provided the SIFs with the comfort of an exit prospect in form of the listing of the BCR shares within three years from the takeover of the controlling interests in the bank.
"AVAS (State Assets Resolution Authority) negotiated with the SIFs so that they would give up their minority shareholder rights before the completion of the privatisation. If we do not go ahead with the listing in three years, the rights re-enforce; it will be in our best interest to boost our stake and then we could have a price negotiation," Andreas Treichl said.
The five SIFs are taking advantage of their stake in BCR at least for now, witnessing a rise in their respective quotes on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. It remains to be seen if Erste will be able to offer a price they will consider sufficient, or if they will prefer to wait for the public offering promised to arrive in three years.
"If Erste wants to buy the stake held by SIF Muntenia, it has to offer a price per share at least equal to what it paid for the acquisition of the controlling interests in BCR (7.65 euros/share), so that we could be at least interested in selling," Petre Szel, chairman of Muntenia Invest, the company that manages SIF Muntenia, told ZIARUL FINANCIAR.
The completion of the privatisation should occur in May, according to Andreas Treichl''s estimates, with the Austrians making preparations in the meantime so that they could apply their business plan, which is almost finished.
"Those hoping they will be able to take clients from BCR during the upcoming transition period, will see they will not have the opportunity to do that," Erste Bank''s chairman said.
The target of the business plan for the next five years is to have BCR contribute at least 20% of the Austrian group''s profit by 2009. As for BCR''s group structure, Erste Bank''s chairman says that BCR''s non-life insurance and the London office of the Anglo-Romanian bank that is also present in Paris in Frankfurt may be dropped.
"In principle, Erste does not get involved in non-life insurance, as its partner for that is Wiener Staedtische. This does not necessarily mean we will maintain the pattern in Romania, too. We have our own office in London, therefore the overlapping would be pointless, but our shareholders are interested in a better representation in Frankfurt," Treichl said. razvan.voican@zf.ro
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