Erste Bank''s policy is to attempt to acquire the remaining shares in BCR in order to reach full ownership of the bank.
To actually do that, it needs all the parties to agree, Andreas Treihl, Erste Bank''s chairman stated in Vienna yesterday. "If the others let us do that, the employees with their 8%, the SIFs with their 30% - if they are ready to sell and we can agree on a price we feel is attractive, we will certainly increase our interest to 100%," Treihl said.
As the minority shareholders are unlikely to accept a price lower than Erste paid to the state, 7.65 euros/share, Erste should come up with another 2.3bn euros besides the 3.75bn euros it is to pay for 61.88% in Banca Comerciala Romana.
As for the obligation undertaken in the privatisation contract to list BCR''s shares on the Bucharest Stock Exchange within three years from the conclusion of the deal, Treihl said, "the contract does not say where the shares have to come from."
He added that Erste Bank will install the new management team at BCR by September, headed by the current chief executive Nicolae Danila, and will reveal new information about the business plan in the third quarter, as well as about the bank''s transition programme and its strategic objectives for the future.
At the moment, the priorities of the transition programme of BCR, which Treihl is supervising personally, are to make the most of the bank''s revenue portfolio, to centralise the back office functions and to optimise the branch network of the bank and its human resources.
Andreas Treihl stated he expected the transaction for the acquisition of 61.88% in BCR to be completed in the second quarter, with Erste''s first quarter results slated to include the results of the Romanian bank, too. As far as the personnel is concerned, the head of Erste specified he did not have any specific figures in mind for BCR''s number of employees, but that there would be adjustments for the various lines of business pursued by the bank, depending on their staffing needs. "As long as revenues increase faster than costs, we are not considering personnel cutbacks," Treihl told a news conference held to announce the financial results of the bank for 2005. The net profit was of 711.7 million euros, up 36.7% from 2004, the assets went up by 9.2% to 152.7bn euros, while the return on equity improved from 17% to 19%.
Starting in January, Erste Bank has had access to all the internal and external data about BCR through the Transition Consultative Committee comprised of ten members, including Erste''s chief financial officer Manfred Wimmer, who ran the team that acquired BCR, and Florin Pogonaru, the chairman of the Association of Business People in Romania (AOAR), who were appointed to attend all the meetings of the Executive Committee, of the Supervisory Board and the General Meetings of BCR, without having the right to vote, though.
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