The Board of OTP Bank, the leading financial institution in Hungary, has endorsed a project on the acquisition of a bank in Romania and authorised management to go ahead with the final talks, Dow Jones Newswires reports quoting Hungary's MTI news agency.
Information on the Hungarian bank being in advanced talks over buying RoBank has been available on the Romanian market for months now. RoBank has also caught the eye of Greek Piraeus Bank Group, of Dutch investment fund FMO and of two investment companies.
OTP's president and CEO Sandor Csanyi was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency in late March that the Hungarian bank had completed the due-diligence process at RoBank and stood "big chances" of being selected to buy the banking institution in Romania.
Csanyi was saying back then that OTP was planning to develop RoBank's network from 12 to 150 branches in the short term.
The deal, in case it comes through, should be worth some 25-30 million euros. RoBank's sale could be the deal of the year on the Romanian banking market, as a more important deal is nowhere in sight. The players on the market were also expecting completion of the Banca Tiriac's sale this year, but shareholders decided to drop sale plans at the very last minute.
Back in 2002, OTP failed in its attempt to buy Banca Comerciala Romana (Romanian Commercial Bank - BCR), but its management did not lose interest in the Romanian market aiming for either a takeover or a project built from scratch. It even contemplated Banca Transilvania in 2000.
RoBank made 119bn ROL net profit last year, down 36.4% from 2002.
Balli Group Plc directly owns 36.5% in the bank and another 15% indirectly through the former insurance company Asigurarea Anglo-Romana (Anglo-Romanian Insurance). Turkish citizen Mustafa Bayraktar owns 45.5% while Vahid Alaghband, a British citizen holds 2% and Turkish citizen Huseyin Bayraktar owns 1%.
oana.nuta@zf.ro
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