The Austrians at Erste Bank, BCR's majority shareholder, are in the process of sorting out CVs and references in order to select the best candidates for the position of CEO of Romania's biggest bank, sources on the financial market have revealed.
After the departure of Nicolae Danila, the interim CEO is Manfred Wimmer, former strategy director of the Austrian group. How long the interim period will last was not clearly defined, but sources say Wimmer would not like to complete a full term as head of BCR for personal reasons.
Wimmer confirmed that the Austrians were considering finding a permanent successor for Danila.
The quoted sources say the list of bankers Erste has in mind includes Misu Negritoiu, ING Bank Romania's chief executive and Dan Pascariu, chairman of UniCredit Tiriac Bank.
Neither would confirm whether they had talked with Erste representatives about taking the reins of the largest local bank.
Wimmer has said that the new CEO of BCR does not necessarily have to be Romanian. Top management positions in local banks are currently dominated by expats. There are some on the market who feel that BCR should be run by a foreign manager, who has not previously worked anywhere in the system and is not connected directly with local interests in any way.
When asked to comment by ZF, Negritoiu explained "rumours were circulating on the market" and reaffirmed his intention to finish his banking career at ING, where he is only halfway through the company's growth strategy, scheduled to peak in 2009. "I will not fuel such rumours," Negritoiu stated.
Even more categorically, Pascariu firmly denied having been in talks with Erste and said he wanted to keep his non-executive position with UniCredit Tiriac, which he chose after the merger of HVB and UniCredit. Furthermore, Pascariu said his specialised position, as a corporate banker, is not necessarily compatible with the needs of a bank like BCR where retail is becoming more dominant.
Human resources experts put the salary package of BCR's CEO at over 50,000 euros per month if targets are met. The actual value of Erste Bank is not even half a cent lower than it was half a year ago, when the price of a share stood at 57 euros, says Andreas Treichl, CEO of the Austrian bank and chairman of BCR's Supervisory Board.
The price reached a new low at Friday's close, 34.35 euros, after it fell to 33.94 euros/share on the same day. Under the circumstances, the market capitalisation of BCR's majority shareholder continued to decline, and reached around 10.8 billion euros.
In an interview for Austrian magazine Format that news agencies also ran, Treichl said that he regrets he cannot buy any more Erste shares right now as other colleagues of his "gladly are" because financial results for 2007 are set to be published on February 29, and regulations forbid him.
Erste is supposed to announce a 20-25% increase in net profit against the previous year.
"We have a 20 to 25% target for this year. It's up to everybody else to decide whether this is sufficient enough to justify naming Erste as a fast growing company," Treichl explained. He is one of the largest individual shareholders of Erste, as his stake is worth almost 7 million euros.
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