The representatives of Hungarian bank MKB are preparing to sign the acquisition contract for Romanian-based Romexterra Bank. The deal will be sealed in Budapest in the next few days and will grant the Hungarians access to the Romanian banking market, sources on the financial market told ZIARUL FINANCIAR.
MKB, the third-largest bank on the Hungarian market is controlled by the German Bayerische Landesbank, which owns an 89.62% stake.
Bayerische Landesbank officials have recently confirmed their appetite for acquisitions on the banking market, although they have not revealed the names of their targets.
MKB submitted a bid to buy Banca Tiriac last year but was eventually outbid by the German HVB Group.
According to the quoted sources, MKB's bid puts Romexterra Bank at approximately two times more than the value of its net assets. MKB's bid evaluates Romexterra at about 100 million euros, according to the information on the market. Hungary's foreign trade bank, MKB, is to buy at least 51% in Romexterra, within 60 days from the signing of the contract. It then plans to get the remaining 49 percent.
Romexterra has over 100,000 shareholders, which means the shareholders are widely dispersed. Employees from the petroleum and gas industry, including the union members led by Liviu Luca are among the shareholders. Petrom owns 2%, gas industry companies have 3.23%, legal entities with private capital own 17.63% and a number of individuals hold 77.13%.
The group of companies including the Petrom employees led by Liviu Luca has been behind a concentration of shares in view of the sale, over the last few months.
Romexterra is one of the small banks on the Romanian market, holding 0.8% of the market at the end of last year, with assets worth over one billion RON (286 million euros). The bank's profit rose by 120% in 2005 to 22.6 million RON (the equivalent of 6.2 million euros). The bank operates a network of about 41 branches and plans to open at least 20 more.
Romexterra posted 2.45 million euros in net profit in the first quarter. Established in Targu Mures in 1993, Romexterra Bank became operational in March 1994, and is a private capital lender that is fully Romanian-owned. It was designed to be a bank for the energy sector in Romania.
Hungarian MKB bank totalled more than 6.5 billion euros in assets at the end of last year, half compared with the market leader, OTP. MKB ranks third in Hungary, after OTP and the Hungarian branch of the Belgians at KBC. It posted approximately 84.7 million euros in gross profit last year. Romexterra and MKB representatives could not be reached for comment by the time the story was ready for print.
After the sale of BCR, the largest bank in the system, to the Austrian-based Erste, the foreign investors' appetite for buying local banks has been growing. Erste will pay about six times the value of BCR's equity capitals.
Thus, the European banks looking to set foot in Romania have gone for the lenders that are available for sale by their shareholders, especially the small banks on the market.
Pentru alte știri, analize, articole și informații din business în timp real urmărește Ziarul Financiar pe WhatsApp Channels
