Romania's Banca Transilvania Group to buy pension funds administrator Certinvest Pensii

With this acquisition, Banca Transilvania Financial Group is expanding in the field of private pensions, it said in a statement filed with the Bucharest Stock Exchange, BVB.

The deal, whose value was not disclosed, is pending approval by the country's Financial Supervisory Authority.

"Through this acquisition, BT's interest is focused on encouraging long-term savings through the Pensions Pillar III, an optional instrument attracting fast-growing interest among active people. We want the future BT pension company to become a relevant a player in this market segment, based on the model of the companies we already have in Banca Transilvania Financial Group," Banca Transilvania CEO Omer Tetik said.

Certinvest Pensii, the only local player among the pension fund administrators in Romania, manages over 75 million lei ($17 million/ 16 million euro) in an optional pension fund that has over 9,500 participants.

BT Asset Management currently has over 3.9 billion lei assets, manages 14 open investment funds and has over 40,000 clients.

The transaction has been conducted with the assistance of BT Capital Partners, the investment banking and capital markets division of Banca Transilvania Financial Group.

Banca Transilvania's net profit rose by 28% year-on-year in the first half of 2019, reaching 848 million lei.

Blue-chip Banca Transilvania was Romania's largest bank by assets at the end of 2018 with a market share of 16.48%, up from 13.87% a year earlier, according to central bank data.

Banca Transilvania's shares traded 0.21% higher at 2.3950 lei on the Bucharest Stock Exchange as at 1038 CET on Friday.

(1 euro=7483 lei)