Raiffeisen Banca pentru Locuinte (RBL), a subsidiary of Raiffeisen Bank that specialises in the management of a housing savings and loan system is preparing to take over the only competitor on the market, HVB Banca pentru Locuinte (HVBL).
The deal is currently being worked out, banking sources told ZF. Raiffeisen Locuinte will now brace for the arrival of BCR Banca pentru Locuinte (BCR Housing Bank), which the Austrians at Erste are counting on.
Contacted by ZF, neither RBL, nor HVBL representatives, or their shareholders cared to make any comment on the deal, or the reasons behind it.
HVB Locuinte was the smallest lender out of the 38 on the market at the end of September 2007, with around 15 million euros in assets. Raiffeisen Locuinte is ranked thirty second.
Each bank has three shareholders: Raiffeisen Bank Romania, Bausparkasse Schwaebisch Hall - Germany and Raiffeisen Bausparkasse - Austria, whilst each owns 33.3% and, in the case of HVBL, Vereinsbank Victoria Bauspar - Germany, 55%, Bank Austria Creditanstalt - 35% and UniCredit Tiriac Bank - 10%.
The value of the deal could stand at several million euros, given that HVB Locuinte's customer portfolio is thought to amount to less than 35,000. Calculated at an average value per savings and loan contract of 5,800 euros, the total should come to around 203 million euros. In 2006, HVBL had around 11,000 clients, with contracts worth almost 66 million euros. The bank had more than 2,000 financial advisors a year ago and planned to recruit 1,000 more. It also planned to open 16 offices besides the four regional ones it operates in Bucharest, Iasi, Timisoara and Cluj-Napoca. In addition, its target was to attract 24,000 new clients.
Raiffeisen Locuinte numbers around 130,000 clients, whilst the value of contracts exceeds 600 million euros.
The concept whereby a client has to save money for a minimum period of time (18 months in RBL's case) before they can take out a loan with a lower interest was introduced on the market in the summer of 2004, when Raiffeisen Locuinte was established. HVB Locuinte started operations a year later, in September 2005.
The state had initially intended to launch a similar project with CEC, with the help of a German specialist bank, but eventually dropped the plans.
Due to the small number of players on this niche, and the small volumes invested in promotion, the product has remained almost unnoticed on the market. The concept also clashes with the market's appetite for consumption, with few clients patient enough to save before taking out a loan.
After the double merger of HVB Bank, Banca Tiriac and UniCredit Romania, which created UniCredit Tiriac Bank and continued with the takeover of the Banca di Roma branch, HVBL's takeover by RBL is a fresh consolidation move on the domestic market. The completion of the takeover of CR Firenze Romania by Intesa Sanpaolo Romania will also be finalised soon.
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