* The BURSA newspaper has announced since the beginning of August, that "Erste" has made a concrete offer to the SIFs
"Erste" and the SIFs have finalized an agreement on liquidizing the stakes of the former in BCR, said Tudor Ciurezu, the president of SIF5 Oltenia.
Ciurezu is the first official of the SIFs to confirm that the five companies have reached an agreement with the majority shareholder of the Romanian Commercial Bank (BCR). "We have negotiated the terms of a deal with Erste, but I can"t tell you more about it, because it will be discussed by the boards of directors of the SIFs", he said.
The president of SIF5 hinted that the proposal made by "Erste" involves the sale of part of the SIFs" holdings and the conversion of the remaining shares into "Erste" shares.
In the beginning of August, the BURSA newspaper announced that discussions between the shareholders of BCR were getting close to the end. Ioan Cuzman, the president of SIF1 Banat Crişana, said at the time that "Erste" made a concrete offer to the SIFs.
However, the final decision belongs to shareholders, according to Tudor Ciurezu: "It is up to the General Shareholder Meeting to decide whether it will empower the management to negotiate the sale of the interest in BCR. If not, we will see whether the listing gets approved".
He also said that the proposal of "Erste" has been discussed and amended countless times.
The alternatives discussed as alternative options to the listing of BCR were the direct sale to Erste Bank of shares owned by the SIFs in BCR, the conversion of the shares into stock issued by Erste, or a combination of the two.
The president of SIF5 has also confirmed that an investment bank has been hired to assess whether the price or the proposed stock conversion ratio is fair. There have been rumors that the bank in question was Rotschi
