The European Commission would agree to a Government share capital increase at the CEC without seeing it as state aid, if private investors contributed 30%.
Currently there are three solutions for a CEC capital increase by almost 180 million euros, budgeted by the Government as investment for this year and one of the main anti-crisis steps, says Bogdan Chiritoiu, Competition Council chairman.
"After the European Commission notified us in June that this capitalisation was considered state aid, there are about three solutions left. Either the Government and the management of the bank agree to the capitalisation of the bank as state aid, or private investors team up with the state and contribute 30%, which would persuade the European Commission that the state acts as a prudent private investor, or we commission a survey to prove the effectiveness of this investment," said Bogdan Chiritoiu, former advisor of President Traian Basescu, appointed chairman of the Competition Council four months ago.
Each of the three options has its disadvantages, Chiritoiu explains.
The bank's management does not agree to this capital increase done as a state aid. Since the bank is healthy, the state aid would only hurt its image.
The 30% contribution of private investors to this increase would practically entail a privatisation of the bank, an idea that both the management of the bank and its main shareholder, the state, dismiss. In February 2009, when the decision to capitalise CEC Bank with more than 200 million euros was made, one of the premises used was that the bank would not be privatised over the next five years so that the state could get its investment back.
Meanwhile, the amount allocated to the bank's consolidation has shrunk from 900 million RON (more than 200 million euros) to 753 million RON (179 million euros), with the difference going to
