January 27 (SeeNews) - National Bank of Greece (NBG) announced the completion of the sale of its 99.28% stake in Banca Romaneasca (BROM) to Export-Import Bank of Romania (EximBank).
The deal was completed following receipt of the required regulatory and anti-trust approvals, NBG said in a press release last week.
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The successful completion of the transaction increases NBG Group’s CET1 Ratio by approximately 24bps in the third quarter of 2019.
Credit Suisse International acted as exclusive financial advisor to NBG. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer acted as international legal counsel and Filip and Company as local legal counsel to NBG.
In November, Romania's prime minister Ludovic Orban said that the government will analyse the deal.
"At the time [of the procurement announcement] we asked ourselves the question: EximBank, which still has a mission according to the law, why must it buy a commercial bank, a retail bank? Of course, there will be an analysis, especially because there is a procedure that has been started," Orban said during a televised news conference at the time.
In September, Romania's competition authority said that it will analyse the takeover for compliance with anti-trust regulations.
In June, EximBank said it has signed an agreement with NBG for the purchase of NBG’s equity holding of 99.28% in Banca Romaneasca for an undisclosed sum. Subsequent to the completion of the transaction, EximBank will enter the domestic retail banking market, thus becoming a universal commercial bank. As a consequence, EximBank’s market share will increase to approximately 3%, which will place it among Romania’s top ten largest lenders, EximBank said at the time.
EximBank is a specialized institution actively involved for more than 27 years in supporting and promoting Romanian businesses. Its specific financial instruments are targeted exclusively to the corporate segment and are offered in advantageous terms to any type of companies such as SMEs, big companies, involved in international transactions or only active on local market.
Banca Romaneasca was set up in 1992 as a universal commercial bank, with an entirely private share capital. In October 2003, National Bank of Greece acquired an 81.65% stake of Banca Romaneasca from the Romanian American Enterprise Fund, thus becoming majority shareholder.
(1 euro=4.7790 lei)
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