IFC (International Finance Corporation), the World Bank'sinvestment arm, could become one of the biggest shareholders ofBanca Transilvania (TLV), with about 3.52% in its capital, if itdecides to convert the 20 million-dollar bonds it has held since2005 into shares.
The bond issue, worth a total of 25 million dollars, reachesmaturity in July 2010, which is the last opportunity to convert thebonds into shares.
Market sources say that IFC is interested to become a shareholderof Banca Transilvania, given that the 1,5049 RON/share conversionprice is lower than the price at the time the bonds were issued in2005. Last year, the conversion price stood at some 3.6 RON/share,so that IFC would have got less than 1.5% of the bank's shares hadit decided to go ahead with this move at that time.
The officials of the institution would not provide a clear answeron this issue. "As far as the IFC is concerned, this issue is morecomplex, because we always look at the development impact.Especially when it is about a bank which is our client and withwhich we have worked on a number of products, especially those forfinancing SMEs in almost every sector," said Ana-Maria Mihaescu,head of the IFC mission in Romania.
Banca Transilvania's biggest shareholders now are EBRD, 15%, HoriaCiorcila, 5% and the SIFs (financial investment companies), whichjointly own a 14.6% stake.
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