February 11 (SeeNews) - Romania’s Millennium Bank, part of Portuguese bank Millennium BCP, said on Wednesday it has raised its share capital by 285.42 million lei to 370.46 million lei ($112 million/86 million euro) as part of its development strategy.
The bank raised its capital by issuing 2,854,200 new shares at a price of 100 lei each. The shares have a nominal value of 50 lei each, the bank said in a statement.
“This capital increase is in line with the business development plan agreed upon by the shareholders of Millennium Bank Romania. As stated before, we have a strong and long-term commitment towards the local market and we continue the process of consolidating our business here,” the Romanian bank CEO, Jose Toscano, said in the statement.
“According to our initial strategy, new capital increases may take place in the following years, positioning us as one of the best capitalised banks in the market,” Toscano added.
Millennium Bank Romania has reported a nine-month net loss of 79.5 million lei due to investments it made to enter the Romanian market. The bank started operations in Romania in October 2007 after investing some 40 million euro ($52 million).
The bank plans to expand its network to 100 branches by the end of 2009 from around 80 now. It had 17,000 clients and employed 619 at the end of September 2008.
Millennium Bank Romania (www.millenniumbank.ro) said earlier it expects to break even in 2011 and invest an additional 300 million euro by then.
(1 euro = 4.2848 Romanian lei)