Bank of Cyprus Buys 9.7% of Romania's Banca Transilvania for 58 Mln Euro

"The acquisition offers Bank of Cyprus the opportunity to invest at an attractive valuation in the share capital of a leading Romanian bank and to gain further insights and experience into the Romanian banking market,” the buyer said in a statement.

The Bank of Cyprus already owns one bank in Romania. Bank of Cyprus Romania has 11 branches in the country. Its total loans and customer deposits amounted to 585 million euro and 113 million euro at the end of September, respectively.

"The above mentioned investment does not affect the Bank of Cyprus Group’s strategy in Romania, which is to be an efficient organisation in the retail banking sector and with a particular focus in the SME sector," the Bank of Cyprus said.

Banca Transilvania, the largest Romanian bank with domestic private ownership, operates through 532 branches and holds an 8.5% market share in terms of deposits, the buyer said. As of end-September, Banca Transilvania had total assets of 18.2 billion lei (4.3 billion euro), deposits and gross loans of 14.2 billion lei and 11.7 billion lei, respectively.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is currently the largest shareholder in Banca Transilvania with a 15% stake. Various companies and individuals own the remainder.

Banca Transilvania shares, part of the Bucharest Stock Exchange’s blue-chip BET index, closed up 5.26% at 2.4 lei on Wednesday.

($=0.6872 euro)