UniCredit Romania owned total assets worth around 426m euros in the first quarter of 2005, up 74% on the corresponding period of last year.
UniCredit registered international factoring operations worth five million euros in the first five months of the year. Last year, the bank logged international factoring operations worth 16.5 million euros. As compared to 2003, December-to-December growth stood at 80%. External factoring accounted for about 90% of the total transactions of this type.
Factoring is operated through the sale of receivables accumulated by a company to an entity, most frequently a bank unit, with a certain discount. This institution moves to retrieve the money owed, making profit in case it manages to collect a sum beyond the price it had paid for the respective receivable. Through factoring operations, companies secure debt financing, management and, in some cases, the takeover of insolvency risks.
UniCredit Romania is a member of Factors Chain International (FCI), one of the world''s biggest international organisations in this field. The network of FCI currently includes 190 members, of 58 countries, operating almost 65% of the global volume of external factoring and over 50% of internal factoring.
In Romania, FCI works with seven banks. Factoring services are being used more frequently, with global growth last year amounting to 40%.
UniCredit Romania is held by Italian financial group UniCredit. The Italians have recently stated their intention of merging with the second-largest German group, HVB Group, which is also present on the Romanian market.
UniCredit is also interested in acquisition opportunities in the Romanian system and plans to participate in the privatisation of CEC (Romanian Savings Bank) or the Romanian Commercial Bank (BCR).
According to the bank''s officials, UniCredit''s target is to win the second position in the Romanian system.
liviu.chiru@zf.ro
CONSULTANCY
The market of advisory services in Romania has achieved an almost 50 million-euro growth in one year, pushing the value of professional services to approximately 250-300 million euros, estimates Anca Ioan, consultant with German Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, specialised in management consultancy. The value of retainers and success fees collected by the consultants operating in Romania are still lower than in the similar markets of Russia, Hungary, Poland or other states in the Eastern European region. "One of the most dynamic segments of the market has been the IT consultancy, a field where several transactions have been concluded lately. Significant growth rates were also posted by corporate finance and investment banking activities, as well as by strategy and management consulting, which comes as a post-privatisation service," Anca Ioan explains. Considered by sector, IT and communications consulting has grown more than the market average, with some experts even anticipating some 20%-25% growth from the previous year. In terms of value, the IT consultancy amounted to 50 million euros.
Pentru alte știri, analize, articole și informații din business în timp real urmărește Ziarul Financiar pe WhatsApp Channels
