On the Romanian banking market, there is nothing to buy at the moment, explains Corrado Passera, CEO at Italy's Intesa Sanpaolo group, which ranks third in the eurozone in terms of market capitalisation.
The CEO states that the current strategy in Romania entails the consolidation of existing operations, namely those of Sanpaolo IMI Romania and CR Firenze Romania, whilst the group would take advantage of an opportunity should a player decide to withdraw from the market.
Intesa was among the international banks that entered the race for the takeover of BCR in 2005.
"For the time being, there are no takeover targets. I believe it was a wise move on our part to have limited the price we were willing to pay for BCR, because price is an important criterion to us and we never lose sight of it. At present, we are content with being present on the market. We're integrating our businesses and trying to develop as much as possible. I expect some of the players present in the 'New Europe' to change their strategies, which could provide an opportunity for us, because we are determined to stay in Romania," Corrado Passera told ZF.
He says the Romanian market will continue to be attractive as an outsourcing choice, as well as to entrepreneurs.
Giovanni Boccolini, head of the unit that oversees subsidiaries outside Italy, states Intesa Sanpaolo does not have ambitious targets in terms of market share, in the context where the new growth strategy started from a base of just 1%.
"We cannot target a large share at a national level. What we plan to do is focus on certain areas, where we aim to gain a 6-7% market share over the next three years, which means that we'll make significant investments in branch network expansion," explains Boccolini.
The first step of the new strategy is to change the name and image of the bank.
"By September, we aim to complete the project that entails the change of the name to Intesa Sanpaolo Romania," stated Nicola Calabro, general manager of the Romanian subsidiary.
He says the bank currently has 50 branches, but will reach 100 in 2009. He also hopes that issues will be resolved this year that are related to the domestic merger with CR Firenze Romania, which will add a further 10 branches in Bucharest, where its presence is among the weakest.
Riccardo Parasporo, a deputy general manager, states several new products are being conceived with the aid of some specialist teams from Intesa group.
In late September 2007, the Romanian subsidiary held assets worth just 379m euros, around 45,000 customers, a loan volume worth 286m euros and deposits worth 175m euros.
Boccolini characterises it as a niche bank, so far focused on SMEs, but with ambitions on retail.
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