Erste Group increase stake in BCR to 88 percent following SIF deals

Newsroom 19/12/2011 | 17:34

Austrian Erste Group increased it stake in BCR to 88 percent, following the acquisition of approximately 6 percent stake in the lender against cash and issuance of new shares from SIF Moldova (financial investment company). Last week, Erste Group also paid RON 123.6 million for approximately 1.2 percent stake in BCR from the SIF Transilvania.

The Austrian group completed the third tranche of agreement with SIF Moldova, meaning that SIF Moldova tendered around 515 million BCR shares. Around 4 million new Erste Group shares were issued for these shares on December 15. 1 Erste Group share was issued for 127.9583 BCR shares.

SIF Moldova acquired under the transaction a stake in Erste Group of about 1 percent by exchanging its 4.7 percent stake in BCR for Erste Group shares. SIF Moldova received a total of 4,025,566 Erste Group shares for 515,104,582 BCR shares.

SIF Moldova can dispose of up to 25 percent of its Erste Group shares immediately after the acquisition. After 6, 12 and 18 months it can sell an additional 25 percent each of its Erste Group shares.

Trading in the new shares will start on December 19 in Vienna, Prague and Bucharest. The new shares have dividend rights for the financial year 2011.

Year to date, Erste Group has acquired a total of 14.5 percent stake in BCR against the issuance of 12.3 million Erste Group shares and paid RON 380.7 million for a 4 percent stake in the Romanian bank.

Ovidiu Posirca