TITL: Erste Bank raises the money to buy BCR
Adrian Mirsanu / Vlad Nicolaescu
Erste Bank yesterday announced a subscription price for its capital increase of 45 euros/share, with the total volume of the issue amounting to 2.65 billion euros, the largest transaction ever conducted on the capital markets in Austria.
The day before the bank had revealed that the subscription period for the three billion-euro (3.7 billion dollars) public offering aimed at securing funding for the acquisition of Banca Comerciala Romana would be finalised early.
"We will pay from our own pockets. We have money made from profit. We are a successful bank," Michael Mauritz, Erste''s spokesman told ZIARUL FINANCIAR.
Erste signed the contract for buying the controlling interests in BCR, 61.88%, last month, for which it will have to pay 3.75 billion euros by this April. It has a staff of ten people in Romania monitoring BCR''s operations until the transaction is completed. BCR yesterday announced 205m-euro profit for 2005. "Erste is bound to not sell BCR in the next three years, the contract says. We bought the bank because we want it to become an important part of our group. It is part of our strategy," Mauritz said.
As for the privatisation contract, it is now being looked at by the financial investment companies, which own about 30% in BCR together.
"We are studying the privatisation contract for the time being. It largely includes what we requested. It, however, refers to a series of appendices we have not yet seen," stated Petre Szel, chairman of Muntenia Invest, the company that manages SIF Muntenia. He did not care to specify what the requests of the SIFs were or what they agreed upon with the state, due to a non-disclosure agreement.
The results announced by the bank do not include
