December 19 (SeeNews) - Romania's anti-trust regulator said on Tuesday it has approved the takeover of Banca Romaneasca (BROM) by OTP Bank Romania for an undisclosed sum.
"Following a review of the transaction, the Competition Council found that it does not raise significant obstacles to effective competition in the market, in particular by establishing or strengthening a dominant position," the anti-trust authority said in a statement.
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OTP Bank Romania signed the takeover agreement with National Bank of Greece (NBG), the owner of Banca Romaneasca, at the end of July.
The transaction involves the shares in BROM held by NBG, as well as the purchase of additional exposures in Romania belonging to other subsidiaries of NBG, OTP Bank Romania said at the time.
The acquisition will increase OTP Bank Romania's market share to around 4%, making the bank the eighth largest lender in Romania.
At the end of 2016, BROM was the 14th largest bank of Romania with a market share of roughly 1.62%. It is active both in the retail and the corporate segments as a universal bank, employing 1,148 in 109 branches across Romania.
Its end-2016 assets stood at 1.57 billion euro ($1.85 billion), with gross outstanding lending of 1.148 billion euro and an equity of 145 million euro. The financial institution's return on equity (ROE) in the last two years was 3.8% and 8.2%, respectively.
OTP Bank Romania is the eleventh largest bank in the country. OTP has been present in Romania since 2004 and currently operates a network of 100 branches where 1,126 work.
At the beginning of 2016, OTP Bank Romania acquired Millennium Bank from Portugal's Banco Comercial Portugues for 39 million euro, becoming 11th biggest Romanian bank in terms of assets with a 2% market share.
($=0.8483 euro)
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