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ROMANIA: Competition for BCR Starts off This
Week 2005-06-06 14:43:54 The competition for the privatization of one of the last state owned giants will start off this week with the call for tenders which will be published in the Official Monitor. Five strong partners from the European banking industry will be competing from that moment on. �This far we have received letters of intent from Deutsche Bank, Intesa, the number one bank in Italy, Unicredit, HVB and BNP Paribas.� said Gabriel Zbarcea president of the Authority for State Assets Valuation (AVAS). He added that �next week I will the meet representatives of Fortis, the biggest banking group from Benelux. Commerzbank and Citigroup also announced they could participate in the BCR privatisation.� The Government approved two weeks ago the bank�s privatisation strategy which stipulates that 50 pc plus one share will be sold to a strategic investor. However investors are allowed to buy more capital. �The state, together with BERD and IFC hold 62 pc of the BCR shares. However 4 pc of the banks� shares will enter the fund. Therefore approximately 58 pc will be left [for sale]. In the call for tenders we will announce that we sell 50 pc plus one share, but we will encourage offers for taking over 58 pc� said Gabriel Zbarcea. In regard to the BERD and IFC participation in BCR Zbarcea commented �surely BERD and IFC will obtain a good profit out of this business�. BCR is the most attractive company from the AVAS portfolio, having a 30 pc share of all banking services in Romania. BERD and IFC have 25 pc of the BCR capital, which they bought with USD 222 M from the predecessor institution of AVAS, since the latter did not manage to find a convenient strategic partner. Prime Minister Tariceanu, recently stated that one of the criteria for the selection of the offer will be �price maximisation�. In the first quarter of 2005 BCR showed a ROL 2,600 Bln gross profit, up by 3 pc as compared to the same period of last year. The banks� assets are up 1.3 pc and reached ROL 242,000 Bln. by Ioan Alexandru Source: Nine O�Clock www.seeurope.net *** sustineti [romania_eu_list] prin 1% din impozitul pe 2005 - detalii la http://www.europe.org.ro/euroatlantic_club/unulasuta.php *** Yahoo! Groups Links
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