With 50.1% of the total shares, Bank Austria Creditanstalt (BA-CA) yesterday took control of the bank resulted from the merger of HVB Bank Romania, in which it owns 99.72% and Banca Tiriac, whose previous majority shareholder was businessman Ion Tiriac.

The merger contract was signed in Bucharest by Erich Hampel, Bank Austria''s chief executive officer and Ion Tiriac, the holder of 89.89% in Banca Tiriac, yesterday.

BA-CA will therefore be the majority shareholder of the new bank, HVB Tiriac, and will coordinate its operations.

The parties specified the "minority shareholders of Banca Tiriac, who are now holding 10.11% in it, will be invited to join the new bank."

HVB Tiriac is now ranking as the fourth bank on the market in terms of assets, which are worth more than 2bn euros and a market share of some 7.5%, behind Raiffeisen Bank, with its 9.3% market share and ahead of ING Bank, 5.5% and CEC, which dropped to 5.3% at the end of the first quarter. The new bank will operate a network of 73 branches and service more than 720,000 customers.

"Our purpose is to rapidly develop our new position to attain more than 10% of the market as soon as possible," Erich Hampel, Bank Austria Creditanstalt''s CEO said at the signing.

He says the merger of the two banks "ideally combines the strength HVB Bank Romania has demonstrated on the corporate, treasury and private banking operations segments with the strong development of Banca Tiriac on the individual customer segment."

"I am very pleased to have finalised this contract. This merger is an essential moment for the future of Banca Tiriac. Along with my team, I built a solid bank, which has earned a good position on the retail market. Both banks will benefit from this merger. They are perfectly matched. And we will continue to grow together," sta