Last week, the officials of the post-privatization department of the AVAS, together with the coordinating chairman of this department, Mrs. Cristina Chiriac, had a meeting with the legal representatives of "Erste Bank", to discuss the confirmation of the clauses included in the contract for the sale of BCR which are still being monitored.
Vice-president Cristina Chiriac said that "Erste Bank" has honored a large part of its contractual obligations. As to what concerns the listing of the shares of BCR on the BSE, the official of the AVAS said that this provision was indeed included in the contract to protect the interests of the minority shareholders. But for the AVAS, the clause has the form of a "stipulation for another", and thus has to abide by the legal provisions and opinions on the matter;
For the AVAS, as part of this contract, "stipulation for another" means that the institution can not be held liable for the failure to honor the clause, the full responsibility for making or not making such a decision rests with the management of Erste, and establishing whether a potential loss exists or not, as well as the other aspects pertaining to this matter is not within the mandate of the AVAS, as the latter is not in any way a party in a potential lawsuit on this matter, namely the listing of the stock of BCR on the Stock Exchange.
On January 10th, 2012, Lawyer Ioana Sfîrăială, a minority shareholder of BCR, filed a lawsuit against Erste Group Bank (EGB) AG, EGB Ceps Holding GMBH and the Romanian Commercial Bank (BCR). The lawsuit requests that Erste Bank honor the provisions of the contract, which stipulate that BCR should be listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange "Thus, the contract stipulates, in art. 13.2 - Post privatization obligations - as post privatization conditions, that the buyer (Erste Bank, and then EGB) must take the necessary action
