July 17 (SeeNews) - Private equity firm J.C. Flowers & Co and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) have completed the acquisition of the Romanian subsidiary of the Greek Piraeus Bank, the EBRD said on Tuesday.
The EBRD is purchasing a 19% stake in Piraeus Bank Romania, it said in a press release.
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The new shareholders will provide financial resources and restructuring expertise needed to expand the bank’s operations and market share, the bank added. Also, the change of ownership is expected to help strengthen the fragmented Romanian financial sector.
As announced at the end of June, J.C. Flowers & Co is buying 76.1% of shares in the company’s first investment in Romania, the EBRD statement added.
In June Piraeus Bank said it has completed the sale of its banking subsidiary in Romania, Piraeus Bank Romania, to J.C. Flowers & Co. The press release did not mention the EBRD as a party to the deal.
The remaining 4.9% of shares will be acquired by the lender’s management, the EBRD said on Tuesday.
The parent, Piraeus Bank Greece, one of the four systemic banks in Greece, is divesting its foreign investments and selling non-core assets as part of a comprehensive transformation of the Greek financial sector, as agreed with the European Commission.
Based in Bucharest, Piraeus Bank Romania offers a wide range of products and services for the local and international clients, including retail, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and corporate banking. PBR operates through a 100 banking unit network, employing 1,200 specialists and has approximately 300,000 customers.
J.C. Flowers, founded in 1998, has invested more than $15 billion (13 billion euro) of capital in 52 portfolio companies in 17 countries across a range of industry subsectors including banking, insurance and reinsurance, securities firms, specialty finance, and services and asset management.
To date, the EBRD has invested close to 8 billion euro in the country in more than 400 projects. Last year alone, it invested 550 million euro in Romania. Of this financing, 93% was provided to the private sector.
($=0.8544 euro)
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