Romania's Banca Transilvania to acquire 100% of Moldova's Microinvest

"The step we are making through this new acquisition shows BT’s commitment to support as many entrepreneurs as possible by developing the microfinancing activity of the Banca Transilvania Financial Group," Omer Tetik, CEO of Banca Transilvania, said in a statement.

Microinvest, the leader of the non-banking financing market in Moldova, has over 25,000 clients to which it has granted more than 30,000 loans, Banca Transilvania said. The company employs 200 people in 13 branches.

"This is an opportunity that we want to capitalise on to the benefit of our clients who are in the early stages of their business endeavors. We will do so by combining the business model we employ in Romania through BT Mic with the one used by Microinvest, as well as through increasing synergies with other companies of Banca Transilvania Financial Group from the Republic of Moldova, namely BT Leasing and Victoriabank," Tetik added.

Banca Transilvania is currently in the process of requesting approvals for the acquisition from the regulatory authorities, it said.

BT Mic is the microfinancing start-up of Banca Transilvania Financial Group, which complements the bank’s role of supporting entrepreneurs. BT Leasing Moldova is the leader of the leasing market in the country in terms of the volume of financed goods. Victoriabank, Moldova's third largest bank, has close to 270,000 active clients, including over 10,000 companies.

As at 9:45 CET on Tuesday, Banca Transilvania's shares traded 0.38% higher at 2.63 lei ($0.61/0.55 euro) on the Bucharest Stock Exchange.

(1 euro = 4.78 lei)