Eurobank EFG will not withdraw funds from Romania

Ana Săbiescu

At the end of last week, Financial Investments Company SIF Oltenia (SIF5) sold its stake in Bancpost to the bank"s majority shareholder, Greek banking group Eurobank EFG, for EUR 12.15 million.

Mihai Bogza, chairman of Bancpost, stated the following for "BURSA": "Bancpost does not comment on transactions between its shareholders. However, as members of EFG Eurobank Group, it is worth emphasizing that our recent acquisition of shares owned by SIF Oltenia proves our commitment to Romania in general and to Bancpost in particular".

Last month, the IMF, the European Commission and the officials of Romania"s Central Bank met in Brussels with the major banks that have branches in Romania in order to discuss their commitment on continuing to fund their Romanian subsidiaries. All the banks in question, including Eurobank EFG, have reaffirmed their commitment to not withdraw their funds from Romania.

The chairman of Bancpost said: "The fact that in these times of crisis, our parent bank is actually increasing its exposure to the Romanian market, speaks for itself on our confidence in Romania"s long term outlook, and sends a positive message to other foreign investors".

EFG Eurobank also initiated negotiations in order to acquire the Bancpost stakes of two other FICs, SIF Banat - Crişana, and SIF Transilvania.

"I think the aforementioned transaction, just like the ones that will follow, give a clear answer to those who feared that foreign banks could cut the funding of their Romanian branches - in the case of Eurobank EFG this is definitely not going to happen", concluded Mihai Bogza.

Prior to the transaction, Greek group EFG Eurobank, owned 84,73% of the bank"s share capital, whereas SIF1, SIF2, SIF3 and SIF5 owned about 11% of the shares together. Following last week"s transaction, EFG Eurobank increased its stake to 88.22%.

According a report of Eurobank EFG, the group"s total assets in Romania amounted to EUR 6.066 billion at the end of March 2009, up 35% YOY from EUR 4.49 billion.