Alpha Bank continues Romanian investment

Alpha Bank Group, the fourth leading Greek investor in Romania, will continue the investment started in this country six years ago, planning to expand it to insurance.

The group’s development strategy for the next three years focuses on its own development mainly, on opening branches, on retailing and last, but not least, on becoming active on the insurance field.

The bank management says the investments planned for the next three years amount to about $15 million.

“We have been present on the Romanian market for six years now, we have been operating in nearly every financial field – banking, leasing, brokerage, investment funds and we’re planning on expanding.

We are hoping that Romania will become the promoter for our group’s business expansion in the Balkan area. We came here to stay, we will develop gradually and we will not make profit our top priority,” Yannis Costopoulos, Alpha Bank Group chairman of the board, last week said in Athens.

He added that the group can support Romania in its EU accession process by becoming more active in the Romanian economy, that is granting syndicated loans to state-run or private companies along with the Government in Bucharest.

Apart from Alpha Bank Romania, the Greek group in Romania holds Alpha Finance Romania, which specialises in brokerage services, investment banking and consultancy and Alpha Leasing, general leasing provider.

Another business of the group is Danube Fund, multi-share international mutual fund investing in the companies operating in SE European countries.

“Romania is very important to us, so our expansion plans include a nearly $15 million investment for the next three years in a first stage. We want to open another 10-15 branches over the next three years, to develop retail products, that is cards and consumer credits,” Vasilios Karaindros, Alpha Bank Group international operations manager, specified.