Andreas Treichl, the chief executive of Erste Bank, will also become chairman of BCR's Supervisory Board, once the privatisation transaction is finalised, the head of the Austrian group announced in Vienna yesterday.
Treichl will thus directly supervise the executive team at BCR headed by Nicolae Danila, which indicates how important the project to integrate the largest Romanian bank in the Austrian group really is.
"I will become the chairman of BCR's Supervisory Board as soon as the transaction is completed. Out of the seven Board seats, Erste will have five," Andreas Treichl stated. The others are to be filled by the representatives of the five SIFs, the minority shareholders of Banca Comerciala Romana. The two representatives of the state and those of EBRD and IFC have formally tendered their resignations. The current chairman of this Board, Daniel Daianu will in turn relinquish the position.
As for the date when the transaction will be finalised, Treichl said he was "quite confident" that the formalities would be concluded in September, about three months later than the Austrians had expected. Erste's boss added it was also necessary for Parliament to endorse the normative act enacted by the Government for the privatisation of Banca Comerciala Romana.
"Operations-wise, we are already making progress in our co-operation with BCR's management, despite institutional delays," Andreas Treichl stated. He added the integration process was "ongoing"; he did not expect it would slow down, as the Austrians are trying not to waste any time because of the legal formalities.
Treichl also said that new information about the financial plans for BCR would be revealed in Bucharest on October 9, where Erste Bank's management is scheduled to meet the local analysts during the "capital market days".
The restructuring plans for BCR involve, among others, outsourcing the procurement functions to a subsidiary of the specialised company Proserv, established by Erste on July 1 and set to begin operations in Central and Eastern Europe in January 2007.
Andreas Treichl added he was confident the goal to increase Erste Bank's net profit by over 20%, excluding any BCR contribution, would be attained this year. Profit in midyear amounted to 448.7 million euros, an increase of 33.7% from the same time last year.
BCR's General Meeting of Shareholders was called for Friday in order to modify the charter of the bank so that Erste would gain full control over the bank and the SIFs would make sure their interests as minority shareholders are not harmed. An exit option has been provided for through the listing of BCR.
The Government and Erste Bank agreed to extend the deadline for completing BCR's privatisation until September 21, as the Competition Council requested additional clarifications to be able to rule on the matter of the state aid for Bancorex, a bank BCR absorbed in 1999.
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