"Even looking back retrospectively, I don't regret the highprice that we paid to take over the BCR. Of course, we didn'tanticipate the big crisis of 2008-2009 at the time of thetransaction," says Andreas Treichl, CEO of Erste Group, whichcontrols the BCR.
In October 2006, the Austrians were transferring into anescrow account opened with Citibank an impressive 3.75 billioneuros, accounting for payment for 61.8% in the biggest Romanianbank. It was by far the most expensive acquisition made by Erste inits expansion campaign in the region, it surpassed offers such asthat of giant Deutsche Bank, but Treichl's ambition to win thetender has long been discussed by analysts and investors, and hadsubsequent reverberations, especially when the internationalfinancial crisis broke out and Erste needed the help of theAustrian state. In 2000 the Austrians had paid just over half abillion euros for Ceska Sporitelna, the biggest Czech bank andstill the biggest subsidiary outside Austria.
In the four years of controlling the BCR, Erste's share of thebank's profits has not reached even a billion euros. However, bycentralising several operations in Vienna, the Austrians haverounded off their earnings.
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