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• Marinel Burduja, in the cards for the management of the new bank
"ATE Bank" Romania, recently acquired by "Piraeus Bank", will be partially bought by several Romanian investors and initially capitalized up to 60 million Euros, and in 2013 more investors will be co-opted, including the financial investment companies (SIFs), and its equity will reach 200 million Euros.
"The negotiations with < Piraeus > are at a very advanced stage. Not only the license of < ATE Bank > will be acquired, but part of the assets and liabilities of the bank as well. The completion of the deal is just a matter of days", sources close to the transaction said, quoted by Mediafax.
Based on the information available at this time, the new bank will be aimed exclusively at companies, particularly those operating in industry and agriculture.
According to the quoted sources, starting next year, the new bank will be led by former "Raiffeisen Bank" vice-president Marinel Burduja, who is also the man leading these negotiations.
Contacted by BURSA, Marinel Burduja declined to comment on this information. However, he told us that he is still in a "period of neutrality" in relation to "Raiffeisen Bank International", a period which he is required to honor.
About a month ago, BURSA wrote that a Romanian bank may show up in the domestic banking system, with the initiative coming from Marinel Burduja, who is negotiating with the SIFs the launch of a Romanian investment bank, having the support of the Romanian National Bank (BNR).
"We are talking about an investment bank, which will make a very careful selection of its investments, which would finance domestically owned companies", our sourced told us at the time.
They said that the plan would be for the new bank to lay the foundation for a "purely Romanian lender", without acquiring assets from other banks, and went on to say that if an asset acquisition were performed, they would have to be performing assets, except no such assets are currently on sale.
One month ago, Marinel Burduja said: "It is every Romanian banker's dream to lay the foundation for a Romanian owned bank".
"This will happen once the time is right. I think that it is extremely important for Romanian capital to one day be present on the domestic market. This would increase interest from foreign investors".
At the time, the representatives of the SIFs were saying that the initiative to launch a bank with Romanian capital was praiseworthy, but it was very difficult to implement, given the current context and the formalities which need to be overcome.
Two months ago, the information appeared on the market that a group made up of over ten businesspeople, with names which allegedly would include Gabriel Popoviciu, Gruia Stoica or Dorel Umbrărescu, as well as the five SIFs, would acquire the Romanian division of ATE Bank.
The quoted sources said that the deal would be done with a small number of investors, and other investors would later be given the opportunity to join, including the SIFs.
In the context of the evolutions of the banking market over the last few years, which have raised question marks over how advisable it was to have about 85% of the Romanian banking system being owned by foreigners, the new entity rapidly gained support from the NBR as well as from the highest ranked officials.
According to some official sources, the project is also supported by deputy prime-minister Florin Georgescu, minister of Public Finance, a well known supporter of domestic capital.
The name of the new bank will be changed, but it will be somewhat similar to its current one.
Sergiu Manea, the CEO and Board member of "ATE Bank", left the bank at the end of last week. The bank's representatives said that the decision was caused by personal reasons.
"ATE Bank" Romania was incorporated in 1990, as the bank for Small Industry and Free Initiative, being the first Romanian joint-venture bank between Romanian and foreign investors.
In June 2006, "Agricultural Bank of Greece" ("ATE Bank Greece") acquired the majority stake of the aforementioned stake. In mid-2012, "Piraeus Bank" Greece acquired "ATE Bank" Greece, including all its branches in the region, meaning 93.27% of the shares of "ATE Bank" Romania.
The National Union of Crafts Cooperatives (UCECOM) holds 3.83% of the shares of ATE, with a face value of 8.45 million lei, and the rest of the shares are divided between 2,330 people.
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