EBRD reduces stake in Romania’s Banca Transilvania

Newsroom 13/11/2015 | 12:21

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has reduced its equity stake in Banca Transilvania, company representatives stating that the partial exit signals confidence in bank’s strong performance and strategic direction. The EBRD sold 86.76 million shares today in an accelerated book-build placement on the Bucharest Stock Exchange.

The transaction was successfully launched on the Bucharest Stock Exchange on November 12, 2015 after the market’s close. The sale attracted strong interest from a broad mix of domestic and international institutional investors. Wood & Co acted as sole bookrunner of the offering.

Following the sale, the EBRD continues to hold 11.47 percent of Banca Transilvania’s shares. The bank has been the largest shareholder in Banca Transilvania since 2001 when it acquired a 15 percent stake to strengthen the bank’s capital base and support the expansion of its activities and loan portfolio. Since then, Banca Transilvania has grown into the third largest bank by assets in Romania.

“As a continuing shareholder, the EBRD remains confident about Banca Transilvania future prospects and its capacity to further strengthen its profitability and market position. By reducing our stake we are helping to increase the liquidity of Banca Transilvania stock, while we continue to support the bank’s growth strategy,” Nick Tesseyman, EBRD managing director, financial institutions, said.

The EBRD is a leading institutional investor in Romania with almost EUR 1.5 billion invested in 75 projects over the previous country strategy period. In total, the bank has invested over EUR 7 billion in the country to date and has also mobilized more than EUR 14 billion from other sources of financing in all sectors of the country’s economy.