Romania’s state-owned lender Eximbank will buy Banca Romaneasca, the local subsidiary of the Greek group National Bank of Greece (NBG), for “several tens of millions of euros,” G4media.ro informed quoting unofficial sources. The deal will be officially announced within a few days, the sources said.

Another prospective bidder for Banca Romaneasca was the US investment fund JC Flowers, which seeks to increase its market share after taking over the local subsidiaries of the Greek group Piraeus and Israeli group Leumi.

However, NBG’s deal with Eximbank is nearly completed and only details related to several support departments of the Greek bank have to be settled, sources told G4media.ro.

By this transaction, the Romanian state strengthens its presence in the banking sector, where it only operates through the savings bank CEC Bank and Eximbank. Eximbank has two divisions: a commercial bank dedicated to the SME and corporate sector, and a division of state funds and state guarantees.

The takeover of a commercial bank has been a target of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) since coming to power in December 2016. Traian Halalai, Eximbank CEO, received the authorities’ consent last year to begin talks with Banca Romaneasca’s Greek owners.

In 2018, Hungary’s OTP group failed to get the Romanian central bank’s approval for taking over Banca Romaneasca. This time, the central bank is not likely to have significant objections against state-owned Eximbank.

editor@romania-insider.com