Cluj-Napoca based Banca Transilvania, the third largest bank in Romania, will receive a USD 40 million subordinated loan from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), World Bank’s investment arm, the bank announced. The loan will strengthen the bank’s capital base.

IFC is one of the largest international creditors of Banca Transilvania. It also holds a 3.6 percent stake in the Romanian bank.

Banca Transilvania’s largest shareholder is the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development EBRD, which holds a 14.6 percent stake. However, more than 50 percent of the bank’s shares are currently held by Romanian institutional investors and individuals, after Bank of Cyprus sold its 9.9 percent stake in April.

Romanian investment companies SIF Moldova and SIF Muntenia bought most of the shares.

Romanian businessman Horia Ciorcila, one of the founders of Banca Transilvania, who has been president of the bank’s administrative board in the last 10 years, also owns 5 percent of the bank’s shares.

Banca Transilvania has been one of the most profitable Romanian banks in the last two years. Last year, the bank posted a net income of RON 375 million (EUR 85 million), the second largest profit in the Romanian banking system.

In the first quarter of this year the bank’s profits went up by 23 percent, to RON 103 million (EUR 23 million). Total assets were up 2.7 percent by the end of March 2014, compared to December 2013, to RON 32.9 billion (EUR 7.4 billion).

The bank is listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB), where its shares trade under the symbol TLV. Share price went up by 13 percent this year, compared to a less than 1 percent growth for the BET Index, which follows the most important 10 Romanian companies listed on the BVB. Banca Transilvania’s market capitalization now stands at EUR 942 million.

Andrei Chirileasa, andrei@romania-insider.com