The National Bank of Romania (NBR) has endorsed the participation of Swiss group Alpur Invest AG as significant shareholder in the capital of the Unirea commercial bank with 36.21%. The link between the new Unirea significant shareholder and the Investment and Technology Bank in Moscow, which was known to have taken over Unirea since this spring is that Alpur Invest AG also holds a stake in the Moscow-based bank.
"We received a notification from Vice-governor Mihai Bogza saying NBR had approved Swiss Group Alpur as shareholder in the bank with nearly 37% of the capital. The representatives of our shareholder will arrive in Bucharest early next week and we will reveal more about this bank's future strategy then," Zoe Ghinescu, the new Unirea general manager told Ziarul Financiar. Ghinescu had previously worked as Banc Post vice-president since 1991. She also worked for the Foreign Trade Ministry before the Revolution, where she was head of Foreign Currency Department at some point in time.
The situation of Unirea Bank has been rather controversial in the course of time. The first problems surfaced two years ago, when Banca Populara Romana (Romanian People's Bank), Unirea's majority shareholder back then found itself strapped for cash and withdraw part of its funds blocked at Unirea. After several lawsuits, NBR withdrew the operating licence of the bank and declared it bankrupt. By the end of 2001 Unirea had managed to regain its licence following several lawsuits. News about a group of Russian investors, the Investment and Technology Bank in Moscow included, having taken over Unirea Bank came early this year. No one knew anything about the plans of the new shareholders for several months, with NBR expected to endorse the deal all through this period.
"We are practically at the beginning now, after having secured most of the necessary approvals from the central bank. We will change our name to Nova Bank, with 'We help the business' as our slogan. The bank has 8 branches at the moment, the most important of which are located in Moldova," Ghinescu says.
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