Eurobank EFG to merge with Alpha Bank, becoming the third largest banking group in Romania

The boards of Directors of Alpha Bank and Eurobank EFG have agreed on a combination of the two banks by way of a merger.

The new group will enjoy an outstanding presence in Southeastern Europe, with an aggregate network of more than 1.300 branches across 8 countries and top 3 market positions in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Romania and Serbia. The newly designed Greek banking group will be among the 25 largest in Europe with pro forma total assets of EUR 146 billion.

In Romania, the Greek banking group will control 11 percent of the market share, with a combined gross loans volume of EUR 6.9 billion, operating in 466 branches. The newly formed group will be ranked third in Romania by asset value, after the local subisidiaries Alpha Bank and Bancpost will also merge.

The Board of Directors and the Executive Committee will be chaired by Yannis Costopoulos and the management team will be led by two co-CEO, Demetrios Mantzounis who will be in charge of control and central functions and Nicholas Nanopoulos who will be in charge of business functions

The transaction will be carried out by merger of equals: 5 new Alpha shares for 7 Eurobank shares. The resulting shareholder split post merger will see Alpha hold a 57.5 percent stake, while Eurobank will control the remaining 42.5 percent stake.

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The legal merger should complete by mid-December 2011. Citi and JP Morgan are acting as financial advisers to Alpha Bank. Barclays Capital, Goldman Sachs International and Rothschild are acting as financial advisers to Eurobank EFG.

Ovidiu Posirca