One more big name on the list of banks interested to take over Casa de Economii si Consemnatiuni (Romanian Savings Bank - CEC) is Rabobank, Holland's third-largest bank. The Dutch financial institution plans to submit a bid for the privatisation of Romania's largest banking network.
"Rabobank is one of the banks that have expressed interest in CEC even before the start of the bid submission process, which is scheduled for late April 2005," says CEC's president Enache Jiru.
When contacted by international news agency Bloomberg News, Jan Dost, spokesman for the Dutch bank said, "Rabobank is interested to expand in Eastern Europe." "We do not rule out participating with a bid in CEC's privatisation," Dost added.
Enache Jiru, who took over as CEC president this autumn, says the prevailing factor in the bidder selection will be the price they are willing to pay for 51% in CEC.
"There is a keen interest in CEC from several potential buyers, starting with the Austrian banks, which creates the premises for getting a good price. A premium on the price will be due to the fact that this is the last transaction of this magnitude in the region," Miklos Kormos, the JP Morgan official in charge of the group's investment banking operations in CEE told Ziarul Financiar.
He says the final talks about JP Morgan being awarded the consultancy contract for CEC's privatisation are almost over. "We will need about six months to make the necessary evaluations and prepare the sale documents," Kormos says.
In his opinion, the potential buyers will be interested in acquiring the entire CEC stake in order to get total control over the bank. A JP Morgan team is in Bucharest these days to negotiate with CEC's privatisation committee headed by a Finance Ministry representative. The purpose of the talks is to set the terms for the consultancy contract.
Jiru says JP Morgan will have to answer a few punctual questions as requested by the procedure of the World Bank, which supervises the entire privatisation process. The documents are supposed to be finished by mid this week, so that they could be sent to Washington to get the World Bank's approval.
Pentru alte știri, analize, articole și informații din business în timp real urmărește Ziarul Financiar pe WhatsApp Channels
