Sorin Popa, vice-president of BRD-Groupe Societe Generale believes it is highly unlikely that the bank will lose its position as second leading bank on the market even though Raiffeisen is catching up fast.
"If we do not make it to number one, we will certainly remain the number two. We have a sound organic growth. We are developing as we set out to. I do not see how anybody could catch up with us," Sorin Popa said.
Last week, Herbert Stepic, Raiffeisen International president stated he was positive Raiffeisen Bank Romania would outrun BRD in the first half of 2005, considering the results in the first half this year.
At the end of last year, BRD's market share reached 13.4 percent if calculated in terms of assets (1.9 billion euros), while Raiffeisen accounted for 7 percent of the market, as its assets were worth 1 billion euros. Banca Comerciala Romana (Romanian Commercial Bank - BCR) was the number one, with a market share standing at 30.8% and assets totalling 4.3 billion euros.
Herbert Stepic announced Raiffeisen was ready to participate in the privatisation of Casa de Economii si Consemnatiuni (Romanian Savings Bank - CEC), an institution whose assets totalled 980 million euros at the end of last year, while its market share reached 6.7 percent. CEC is the fourth leading bank.
"CEC is a mammoth that needs to be restructured and that is not such an easy thing to do. It does have its clients, indeed, but they are people on low-incomes. It will take years to get CEC up and running. Raiffeisen has not won the competition for CEC's privatisation for the time being. Not even in this manner (i.e. winning the race for the bank's privatisation) will they be able to come close to BRD," the BRD official stated.
The two banks are due to release their first half financials over the next few weeks.
"The results are more than encouraging. We are above the budget targets," Sorin Popa explained. BRD logged net profits of 62.7 million euros last year, while Raiffeisen's profits stood at 5.1 million euros.
"When we're talking about market shares we must not talk only in terms of assets but also in terms of profit and revenues. We must talk profitability above all," Popa added.
cristian.hostiuc@zf.ro
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