Sources: "Arab investors, interested in Bancpost"

Aside from the banks in Romania interested in acquiring Bancpost, there are also apparently some foreign entities that have set their sights on Bancpost, according to some market sources. They are saying that one of the players who may be interested in buying Bancpost would be Abu Dhabi Investment Council (ADIC), owned fully by the United Arab Emirates. The Abu Dhabi Investment Council is funded from profits from the oil industry, which it invests in a large range of assets, such stocks, credit instruments, real estate assets, infrastructure and private capital.

Some of the significant investments of the ADIC are National Bank of Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Union National Bank Al Hilal Bank, Abu Dhabi National Insurance Company, Abu Dhabi Aviation Company, Abu Dhabi Investment Company (Invest AD), Abu Dhabi National Chemicals Company.

Two other entities interested in Bancpost might be, according to our sources, a Canadian fund and Varde Partners, that is active on the investment consulting market.

Bancpost which is owned by Eurobank seems to also be interesting for some Romanian banks as well, including, according to information in the market, OTP Bank, Banca Transilvania and Alpha Bank.

The Greek group has announced that it is searching for a strategic partner that would buy a stake in the Bancpost division, which is active in Romania. Sources from within Eurobank, quoted by Reuters recently said that Eurobank, which has operations in Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Cyprus, has to reduce its exposure to assets outside Greece from approximately 11.2 billion Euros, that it currently has, to 8.7 billion Euros, in 2018, to comply with the commitments made to the European Competition authorities.

"We have appointed two consultants to look for a strategic partner in acquiring a stake in Bancpost. This will help the bank reduce its businesses in Romania and complying with its commitments to reduce its exposure abroad", the quoted sources said. The two consultants, hired in the beginning of this year to handle the sale of Bancpost are, according to the existing information, HSBC, from the UK and Mediobanca of Italy.

When asked what details they could provide on the subject, the representatives of Bancpost told us: "As a majority shareholder, Eurobank officially reports any changes that occur in their subsidiaries and will always do so promptly when necessary".

The Eurobank representatives recently said: "We do not want to completely withdraw from Romania, but we cannot provide additional to the bank to help it grow. If a strategic partner buys a stake in Bancpost, our exposure will be reduced according to our commitments".

Banking group OTP Bank Nyrt has available approximately one billion dollars for acquisitions in Eastern Europe, including in Romania, and intends to launch an offer for the takeover of Bancpost, said in March, OTP manager Sandor Csanyi, in a shared interview he gave Bloomberg and Reuters.

Eastern European banks are being subjected to pressure to consolidate their operations, as some banks have to deal with stricter capital requirements introduced before the crisis, and others have to readjust their operations. The head of OTP believes that this situation creates opportunities for the Hungarian bank to make acquisitions in Belarus, Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine.

Sandor Csanyi said, according to Agerpres: "We have waited for a decade for the market consolidation process to begin, but that hasn't happened. My feeling is that this process is just getting started".

He said that OTP is doing the due diligence procedures for the acquisition of a bank in Romania and is about to complete another acquisition in Montenegro, mentioning that in Romania, OTP wants to conduct an offer for the takeover of Bancpost when Eurobank puts it up for sale.