Romanian investor Horia Ciorcila, the president of Banca Transilvania’s board, reduced his stake in the bank by almost 1 percentage point, to 4.13%, following a series of transactions he carried on the Bucharest Stock Exchange last week.

Ciorcila, who’s one of the bank’s founders and largest shareholders, initially owned 5.02% of Banca Transilvania’s shares directly and via an offshore firm that’s registered in Cyprus, Castorius Limited.

Last week, Castorius Limited sold 45.8 million Banca Transilvania shares, representing 1.75% of the bank’s capital, for over EUR 21 million. Some of the shares (22.8 million, or 0.87% of the bank’s capital) went to another firm Ciorcila owns, which is called Thelteck Limited. The remaining 23 million shares were bought by other investors.

Ciorcila said he sold the shares so that he would repay a loan he had taken from another bank, namely Bank of Cyprus, reports local Ziarul Financiar.

Horia Ciorcila has been Banca Transilvania’s president for 15 years, turning it into one of the top three banks in Romania by assets. Last year, Banca Transilvania made a net profit of almost EUR 100 million and reached EUR 8 billion in assets. Its shares have increased their value by over 40% in the last year.

The lender, which bought Volksbank Romania in December last year, currently has a market value of EUR 1.21 billion.

editor@romania-insider.com