Nicolae Danila, the former chief executive of Banca Comerciala Romana owns more Erste shares than Andreas Treichl, CEO of the majority shareholder of the biggest Romanian bank.
"Indeed, I am the biggest individual shareholder of Erste Bank," Danila confirmed for ZF.
The former CEO of BCR came to own this much in Erste because of the substantial BCR stake he had, which accounted for 0.1% in the bank.
Danila took advantage of the Austrians' offer at the end of 2006 choosing to swap most of his BCR shares for Erste shares, a 6 to 1 swap. Then in 2007, Danila continued to buy Erste shares as part of the plan that allows managers of the Austrian group to buy stock at discounted prices.
Danila is now concerned about the steep decline of the Erste price amid the generalised decline affecting the stock markets and the banking industry in particular.
"I expect it to show its growth potential because the price has fallen quite a lot lately," Danila says.
The price per Erste share continued to go down on the Vienna Stock Exchange yesterday, reaching 42 euros after having previously fallen to a minimum of 41.39 euros. This is the lowest price in the past year.
Under the circumstances, the market capitalisation of BCR's majority shareholder visibly fell below the 14 billion euros, to 13.59 billion euros, 4.7 billion euros less than in 2006.
Andreas Treichl, CEO of Erste, is an active buyer of shares of the bank he runs. Last August he bought 45,400 shares in ten instalments, almost half of them at 54.76 euros, and the rest at lower and lower prices, of as little as 49.51 euros. The data published by Erste thus far do not cover the last four months of the year
Nicolae Danila resigned his CEO position with BCR on December 1. The news took the market by surprise; although him being replaced was considered inevitable, many were expecting the Austrians to keep him in his position in the first part of 2008, too.
Danila himself was adamant in August 2007, denying a potential imminent resignation from his position. After he quit, speculations soon emerged about how he would continue his career, with one of the options considered being his return to the NBR, where he had been an advisor of Governor Mugur Isarescu before 2000.
"I do not intend to stay away from the banking sector. There are a lot of opportunities worth taking," Danila says.
BCR's former chief says the Austrians did not impose any conditions upon his departure about how to continue his career or the date when he may return to the financial industry.
"There are no restrictions imposed by Erste. I can go into any kind of business I please."
He says the Austrians would have no reason to worry about the amount of information he accumulated in the seven years at the helm of the biggest bank on the market.
"I left BCR with my head held high. I am a professional and I would not do anything to jeopardise the reputation I have built." Danila adds that he does not care too much about a difference in status after the position he has held for so many years.
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