THE AMERICAN FUND WON'T STOP AT BANCA CARPATICA AND PIRAEUS BANK NBR sources: "J.C. Flowers has set its sights on a third Romanian bank"

• JC Flowers is not commenting

Christopher Flowers has been an executive for Goldman Sachs for 20 years

James Christopher Flowers, the founder of J.C. Flowers & Co, has worked for 20 years at Goldman Sachs, where he has held several executive positions and for ten years, until 1998, he has figured among the list of partners of the Romanian bank of investments.

Flowers specializes in investments in the financial industry, and the best known and successful transaction that he has been involved in was the acquisition of Japanese Shinsei Bank by Ripplewood Holdings, a deal which made him a profit of approximately 1 billion dollars. After the start of the financial crisis some of the funds he managed suffered significant losses, at least in the first years after 2008.

The former Goldman Sachs partner played a significant part in the decisions the US made in the beginning of the crisis, in September 2008. In those days, he was asked by Bank of America to provide consulting on the opportunity of acquiring Lehman Brothers, and shortly afterwards he was called in by AIG to find solutions to avoid their default, according to Mediafax.

Flowers was a close friend of former US Treasury secretary Henry Paulson, during the time when he was active at Goldman Sachs, and he was one of the first to warn him of the impending disaster that threatened Lehman Brothers and AIG.

American hedge fund J.C. Flowers seems to have big plans for investing in Romania.

After signing an exclusive deal to acquire Banca Comercială Carpatica and submitting a binding offer to buy Piraeus Bank, the fund wants to acquire a third Romanian bank, according to sources from the NBR.

Our sources told us: "J.C. Flowers isn't going to stop there. It has identified a third bank it wants to buy. We cannot currently tell you which it bank it is, but we can assure you it is not a Greek-owned one".

Of the several investors which have expressed their interest in acquiring Piraeus Bank, J.C. Flowers is the most interested, according to the quoted sources, who told us: "There are also other funds which have expressed their wish to acquire Piraeus Bank, but the one which demonstrated the most commitment was JC Flowers, which has even made a binding offer".

A spokesperson of the American fund told us that the representatives of J.C. Flowers are not commenting on the issue.

According to the website Mîrşanu.ro, also interested in the acquisition of the Greek-owned bank are investment funds Warburg Pincus and American investor Wilbur Ross, one of the main shareholders of Eurobank and Bank of Cyprus.

BURSA recently wrote that bank group OTP wants to buy Piraeus Bank România. Our sources told us that OTP entered Piraeus Bank's data room: "That does not mean that they are going to acquire it, but they are interested and conducting an analysis".

Banca Transilvania has also expressed its interest in acquiring the Greek-controlled lender, but neither of them has submitted a bid.

Market sources claim that the NBR did not give the two operators the approval to acquire Piraeus Bank.

J.C. Flowers is also negotiating the acquisition of Banca Comercială Carpatica. Nicolae Cinteză, the head of the Oversight Division of the NBR, recently told us, in an interview, that Carpatica has signed an exclusive agreement with the J.C. Flowers fund: ". There is a period of waiting until the legally required deadlines are elapsed and then the deal will be concluded. It is a very good investment, because we are talking about one of the most powerful investment funds in the US".

According to Mr. Cinteză, on the Romanian banking market there are going to be a few mergers. "There will be some mergers in the market. At the very least, the decisions will be made this year. The mergers are set to take place between our banks, with Greek subsidiaries being concerned as well. That is currently being considered. If it materializes or not, we will see.", he told us.

In Romania there are four banks with Greek shareholders - Bancpost, controlled by Eurobank, Banca Românească, which has National Bank of Greece as its shareholder, Alpha Bank and Piraeus Bank. Together they hold approximately 12% of the assets of the Romanian banking system.

Founded in 1998, J.C. Flowers is dedicated to investments in the global financial services industry. According to the information on its website, J.C. Flowers is investing in the third fund it has created, with total capital investments of 2 billion dollars.