Romanian bank Carpatica's loss narrows to a fifth while assets up in 2011

Romanian lender Banca Comerciala Carpatica ended 2011 with a loss of EUR 7.4 million, around a fifth of the EUR 34.7 million loss posted the year before. The bank managed however to increase its assets by 29 percent, to some EUR 893 million. Carpatica, one of the few banks majority owned by local investors and also one of the smaller banks in Romania, by volume of assets, saw its revenues down 19.4 percent in 2011 on the year before, but succeeded in cutting its expenses by almost one third. Banca Comercială Carpatica has a network of 155 units in Romania. The bank's shares are trading on the Bucharest Stock Exchange ( symbol BCC ), at a price of RON 0.05 at closing on Wednesday (February 15 ). Its capitalization is of EUR 40.5 million based on the current price, which went down from RON 0.08 in the last 12 months. Banca Carpatica is majority owned Romanian investors Ilie Carabulea and Corneliu Tanase. Carabulea owns the Atlassib holding, which includes the Atlassib transport company, as well as retailer Comat Sibiu. editor@romania-insider.com