January 18, 2005
Romania Fin Min Mulls IPO Ahead Of CEC Bk Sale - Report
BUCHAREST -- The Romanian government might consider selling as much as 15% of state-owned savings bank Casa de Economii si Consemnatiuni SA through an initial public offering, Finance Minister Ionut Popescu said Tuesday, private news agency Mediafax reported.
The IPO would precede the sale of a majority stake in CEC to a strategic investor, Popescu said. The decision on the potential IPO will be made after consulting JP Morgan Chase & Co (JPM), which is advising the government on CEC's privatization, he added. The government, together with JP Morgan, is expected to set by March 2005 a privatization strategy and invite interested investors to bid.
Romania has pledged to privatize its savings bank this year, as it prepares its financial sector for the country's planned European Union membership in 2007.
CEC is the last bank in which the government still holds a majority stake, and the only bank in which deposits are fully guaranteed by the state. After privatization, CEC would lose the state guarantee.
CEC has a network of about 1,400 branches and offices, the largest in Romania . At the end of July 2004, CEC assets totaled 46.05 trillion lei ($1=ROL28 ,759 ).
Press reports also said earlier that Bank Austria Creditanstalt (BACA.VI) and Erste Bank (EBS.VI), together with Raiffeisen Zentralbank Oesterreich AG (RZO.YY) and Dutch Rabobank Nederland (RBK.YY) are interested in buying CEC.