State-owned bank takes over National Bank of Greece’s Romanian subsidiary

Romanian state lender EximBank and the National Bank of Greece (NBG) signed on June 20 the agreement through which the Romanian bank acquires 99.28% of Banca Romaneasca, the local subsidiary of NBG, according to a press release. It is the first time in Romania when a state bank takes over a privately owned lender.

Following this transaction, EximBank will be active for the first time on the retail banking segment in Romania, becoming a universal bank. In addition, EximBank’s market share will grow to around 3%, which will place the state lender in top 10 financial-banking institutions in Romania.

The value of the transaction was not made public but, according to local business daily Ziarul Financiar, it could range between EUR 250 million and EUR 350 million.

“The Ministry of Finance, as the majority shareholder of EximBank, believed from the start in the extraordinary potential of this approach, which is coming to crown the constant concern of the Romanian authorities to strengthen the presence, the role and the systemic impact of state-owned banks on the local banking market,” finance minister Eugen Teodorovici said.

“We trust that the new entity will act as an important factor in sustaining the economic growth of the country through the financial support it will give to all market segments, whether we are talking about individuals or companies,” he added.

EximBank is a state-owned bank with a focus on the corporate segment, mainly delivering products tailored for companies involved in foreign trade. It ranked as the country’s 15th largest bank by assets with a share of 1.3% (RON 5.5bn, or EUR 1.2bn assets) at the end of 2017.

Hungarian group OTP Bank gave up last year its plan to buy Banca Romaneasca after the central bank BNR didn’t approve the transaction.

(Photo source: Eximbank.ro)**