* Officials of "Erste": "We believe that the decision not to take BCR public was made in a fair and transparent manner"
* Ioana Sfîrăială: "The object of the lawsuit concerns the failure to abide by contractual clauses, rather than the price of the shares"
* "Erste" makes an offer to minority shareholders of BCR
Ioana Sfîrăială has sued "Erste Bank" and the Romanian Commercial Bank (BCR) for failing to honor their obligation to take BCR public, which was stipulated in the privatization contract.
Lawyer Ioana Sfîrăială, one of the minority shareholders of BCR, is now starting a fight with the domestic bank, after winning a resounding lawsuit filed against the Proprietatea Fund, through which it managed to invalidate the appointment of Franklin Templeton as manager of the former.
Ioana Sfîrăială said yesterday: "Two weeks ago we filed a lawsuit requesting that Erste Group honor its contractual terms to take BCR public". She said that the first hearing has been set for September 7th.
The defendants are "Erste Group Bank" AG, "EGB Ceps Holding" GMBH (later created by Erste Bank and which has taken on all the rights and obligations stipulated in the contract) and the Romanian Commercial Bank.
Ioana Sfîrăială is asking the courts to hold the defendants jointly liable, according to the art. 3.2, letter a of the sale contract (ed. note: the listing of the bank within 36 months from the signing of the contract, namely starting with December 21st, 2005).
The representatives of "Erste Group" have said that they would not comment on the approach of Mrs. Sfîrăială. "We believe that the decision not to take BCR public was made in a fair and transparent manner", they said.
"Erste Bank" did everything it could to avoid taking BCR public. In 2009, it signed with the SIFs (ed. note: which owned approximately 30% of the sh
