A DEAL WORTH 700 MILLION EUROS Ion Ţiriac exits UniCredit Ţiriac, and the small shareholders could be left holding the bag

Businessman Ion Ţiriac may be looking to sell his stake of 45.059% of the shares of UniCredit Ţiriac Bank to Italian group UniCredit, which holds approximately 50.6% of the shares, for 700 million Euros, according to Reuters, which quotes Italian publication Messaggero. According to the latter, the signing of the documents could take place one week from now, and the deal may be completed by Christmas.

Ion Ţiriac holds shares in UniCredit Ţiriac Bank through Redrum International Investments (approximately 24.83%) and Vesanio Trading Limited (approximately 20.22%).

Both Ion Ţiriac and the representatives of UniCredit Media Relations have declined to comment.

Contacted by BURSA, the representatives of the group of small shareholders of the bank (approximately 4.5% of the shares), which has been litigating with the majority shareholders for some time now, said that for the moment, they don't want to say much on the matter, "not until they are regarded as partners for discussion at UniCredit Ţiriac Bank". Voices from within the shareholders told us: "What else could be said, after Ţiriac has been cheating us, starting in "92 and up until this day? As you can see, he gets the option to make an exit, while we, who have contributed in time to the building of this bank with our own money, don't get an equal treatment".

The relations between the small shareholders of the bank and Ion Ţiriac have been tense since 1993. In March 2007, Mihail Nicolaevici, small shareholder, wrote, in BURSA: "An illegal maneuver made by Ion Ţiriac fourteen years ago, at the Ion Ţiriac bank, comes back today (ed. note: March 12th, 2007) as a scandal in the shareholder structure of HVB Ţiriac, after it has cyclically encumbered on every action of Banca Ţiriac, since then. Even though, over time, the courts have ruled the invalidation of the decisions made by Ţiriac in 1993, the consequences of his maneuver that he made back then have never been fully extinguished and have never been fully resolved". In March 2007, he wrote that "the General Shareholder Meeting of the Shareholders of HVB Ţiriac had met to decide on the merger with Unicredit România.

As part of the General Extraordinary Shareholder Meeting, the minority shareholders have accused the former and the current management of the bank (following the merger between Banca Ţiriac and HVB, which occurred in 2007) of violating their rights, starting with the right to be informed about the bank's financial situation and the right to dividends. The same General Shareholder Meeting decided, once again with the decisive vote coming from Mr. Ţiriac, an increase of the share capital in which only himself and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development would participate, thus violating the right of first refusal of the other shareholders and diluting their stakes again".

UniCredit Ţiriac Bank was created through the merger of UniCredit România, HVB Bank România and Banca Ţiriac, in the year 2007. According to the annual report pertaining to the year 2012 of UniCredit, UniCredit Bank Austria, the international division by which Italian group Unicredit controls the businesses it has in the region, reported a stake of 95.56% in Unicredit Ţiriac Bank, because it was required to buy the block of shares held by Ţiriac at any time he would express his wish.

Just one week ago, the vice-president of the European Bank for Investments (BEI), Mihai Tănăsescu, said that the institution he represents would sign a 60 million Euros loan agreement with UniCredit Ţiriac Bank.