April 24 (SeeNews) - Bucharest Court of Appeal has approved the planned merger between Banca Comerciala Carpatica (BCC) and its majority owner Patria Bank, formerly known as Nextebank, BCC said on Monday.
The approval, issued by the court on Friday, takes the two banks a step closer to the implementation of their merger by absorption expected to take place on May 1, BCC said in a press release.
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Patria Bank and Banca Comerciala Carpatica will become one bank that will continue to be listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange and will be named Patria Bank, BCC added.
The new bank will be present in 73 cities at national level through 111 branches, will have more than 240,000 customers and 3.82 billion lei in assets. It will be focused on increasing the access to banking services for Romanian population and supporting local entrepreneurs.
The expected merger date hinges on the issuance of a court decision confirming the legality of the decisions of the general meetings of the shareholders of the two banks regarding the approval of the merger.
In the spring of 2016, Nextebank, which was later renamed to Patria Bank, bought over 64% of BCC shares for 144 million lei ($33.9 million/33.1 million euro).
In March 2016, Romania's antitrust regulator approved the takeover of BCC by Patria Bank. In November, the merger project of the two banks received the approval of Romania's central bank, which allowed to start the operations necessary for effective integration.
Patria Bank is owned by Emerging Europe Accession Fund, an investment fund administered through Axxess Capital, an investment advisor of private equity funds with presence in Romania and Bulgaria.
Sibiu-based Banca Comerciala Carpatica was founded in 1999 by at the initiative of Romanian and Italian entrepreneurs active in the public transportation sector.
(1 euro = 4.5441 Romanian lei)
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