Romania goes full speed for bank privatizations
BUCHAREST (Reuters) – Romania has short-listed 10 international banks out of the 11 that submitted letters of intent in the sale of its biggest bank Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR), privatization agency AVAS said yesterday. AVAS said in a statement the 10 banks are Fortis, Banco Comercial Portugues, National Bank of Greece, Banca Intesa, Deutsche Bank, Erste Bank, Dexia, KBC, BNP Paribas and ABN Amro. Bidders can opt to bid for 50 percent plus one share or for a stake of 61.8 percent in BCR, which has a market share of 26 percent and 325 branches nationwide. The government has also approved a strategy to privatize CEC, the people’s bank during communism.
