Raiffeisen Bank has entered the race, submitting an offer for the acquisition of Garanti Bank Romania, owned by the Spanish group BBVA, according to banking market sources consulted by Ziarul Financiar. ING Bank and Intesa SanPaolo have also reportedly placed bids.

The final date for submitting bids is February 13, according to Profit.ro.

For both ING and Raiffeisen, the acquisition of Garanti BBVA Romania would mean exceeding 11% market share and rising to fourth position in the market, after Banca Transilvania, BCR, and UniCredit, surpassing BRD Groupe Societe Generale and CEC Bank. Intesa SanPaolo (Romania) has a smaller footprint, with a market share of some 2%.

Garanti Romania is owned by Garanti BBVA Turkey, through a company in the Netherlands. The Turkish bank is in turn owned by Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria - BBVA, one of the largest financial groups in the world, with business mainly in Spain and Latin America.

Garanti Bank Romania was the 10th largest bank by assets at the end of 2024, with a share of 1.91% and total assets of RON 16.8 billion (EUR 3.3 billion).

The Austrian Raiffeisen Group owns Raiffeisen Bank in Romania, the fifth bank in the system, with a market share of 9.31% at the end of 2024, and assets of RON 82 billion. A few years ago, Raiffeisen reached the final stage of the race for the acquisition of OTP Bank, where Banca Transilvania won the battle. 

ING was in 6th place, with an 8.85% market share and assets of RON 78 billion, at the end of 2024.

The Romanian banking market is quite crowded in terms of the number of banks, no less than 34, but the top 10 hold over 80% of the assets. 

In recent years, there have been 2 important transactions. Unicredit acquired Alpha Bank Romania, which increased its market share to over 10%, competing for 3rd place with CEC Bank. The second transaction was the acquisition of First Bank by Intesa, which brought the Italians into the top 10.

The first position in the market is held by BT, which in the last decade has bought 4 banks, reaching a market share of over 25%. BCR, owned by the Austrian Erste group, the largest in CEE, is in second place, with a share of 13.69% at the end of 2024, and in third place was CEC Bank, fully owned by the Romanian state, with a share of 11.2%. 

BRD, which 15 years ago was in second place, has constantly lost ground and reached 5th place.

iulian@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Garanti BBVA)