The magazine stated that Romania is on the verge of making the largest privatization in its entire history. The BCR transaction could surpass the Petrom privatization and could be even larger than the takeover of Connex by Vodafone in spring, estimated at 2.5 billion dollars. The bank could be valued at 4.9 billion dollars, 3.8 times more than its accountant value, according to the analysts of the American investments bank Goldman Sachs, quoted by Business Magazin.
At this price, the buyer of the 62% of BCR’s shares on offer would pay approximately 3.3 billion euros. Under this estimate, a BCR branch costs 15.6 million euros while a client would „cost” approximately 1.100 euros. As the bank was evaluated at 4.7 billion euros and it has a market share of 25% (by assets’ value), each percent of the share of the market would be worth approximately 190 million euros.
Another analysis made by the British financial consultancy company Keefe, Bruyette and Woods (KWB) suggests a 5.5 billion euros evaluation for BCR (3.4 billion euros for the 62% share package) could be realistic, meaning 4.6 times the bank’s accountant value.
The investment division of Raiffeisen Zentralbank, Raiffeisen Centrobank (RCB) believes that 3 billion euros for the entire bank would represent a „realistic evaluation”, with the Romanian state obtaining 1.86 billion euros for the share package that will be sold. The latest large privatization in Romania and one of the last in the region has captured the attention of seven international groups. From European giants like Deutsche Bank or BNP Paribas to regional groups like Erste Bank or Millenium Banco Comercial Portugues, the Romanian financial institution has attracted important financial interests.
On 17 October offers were made by the Italian Banca Intesa, the Belgian bank Dexia and the National Bank of Greece. Three years ago, in 2003, two attempts in privatizing the bank failed. At the first tender only two banks presented offers (the French financial institution Eulia and a consortium formed of Austria Creditanstalt Bank and OTP Hungary), but both bids were rejected. No offers were made for the second tender.
Over the first six months of the year BCR reported a net profit of 121 million euros, 70% of its earnings in 2004. BCR administers 7.3 million accounts and almost 800,000 credits for 4.5 million clients, both private persons and legal entities. The bank intends to expand its retail network and by the end of this month BCR will have 350 functional units.
Besides CEC, BCR is one of the few Romanian banks present in small towns which have less than 100,000 inhabitants. One of the bank’s important advantages is that it owns the most valuable chain of branches and properties of all banks existing on the Romanian market.
