OTP Bank’s binding bid contains the price, the draft sale and purchase agreement as well as all necessary documentation. The binding bid was submitted after OTP Bank’s acquisition team, together with the legal advisor Martonyi és Kajtár Baker & McKenzie and financial auditor Ernst & Young carried out the due diligence on CEC.
CEC’s market share is 4.3% based on its EUR 1.53 billion total assets on 31 December, 2005, its shareholders equity is EUR 158 million and its after-tax profit is EUR 1 million. The savings bank serves its around 3.1 million clients via nearly 1,400 branches. The Bucharest-based retail-focused financial institution had deposits of EUR 1.31 billion and loans of EUR 511.9 million at the end of last year.
As it is known, the Ministry of Public Finance of the Republic of Romania announced a tender for the sale of up to a 75% but not less than a 50% plus one share shareholding in CEC on 10 August, 2005. OTP Bank submitted its Letter of Intent to the Ministry of Public Finance on 31 August, 2005, followed by it being put on the short list which paved the way to the submission of the indicative offer on 21 October, 2005. The seller modified the stake on offer in June 2006 to 69.9% to which OTP Bank submitted its binding bid today.
