The rumor that the SIFs would be looking to sell their stakes in the Romanian Commercial Bank (BCR), in which they hold about 30% of its share capital, has aroused the interest of some major foreign players, willing to offer their services for this purpose.

The officials of the international investment bank "Nomura" have recently met with the president of the five SIFs, and they were ready to advise them on the issue of "liquidating their shares in BCR", according to sources that did not wish to be named.

Just so they don"t come in empty handed, the analysts of "Nomura" also performed an evaluation of BCR, but the officials of the FICs are keeping it a secret, saying that only public information was used for the study.

"The people of Nomura came to make us an offer to provide consulting services on how to ensure the liquidity of the shares of BCR", Mr. Petre Pavel Szel, the president of SAI Muntenia said, without going into details on what the proposals made by "Nomura" consisted of.

Mr. Szel added: "Nomura made this consulting proposal, it remains to be seen on whether we are going to hire them or somebody else, or whether we are going to hire anybody at all. The people of Nomura are interested in signing a consulting contract with one or several of the SIFs on the subject of their stakes in BCR".

According to the president of SAI Muntenia, a decision on the hiring of a consultant may be made in autumn, prior to the expiration of the deadline for the listing of the bank, stipulated in the agreement to postpone the listing of BCR, which was signed in 2009 by Erste and the SIFs. The agreement is set to expire in October.

The talks between the SIFs and the Austrians of "Erste" concerning the sale of BCR have started heating up over these past few months, as the shareholders of the bank have not been paid dividends by BCR for the l