BA-CA confirms official interest in CEC

Bank Austria Creditanstalt (BA-CA), a member of the German HVB Bank Group, is more interested in a takeover over of the Romanian Savings Bank (CEC), than in any new attempt to become BCR’s majority shareholder, said Martin Grull, chief executive of the BA-CA division for Central and Eastern Europe. BA-CA representatives expressed some doubts as to the continuation of the BCR privatisation process any time soon. On the other hand, they expect the bank selected by the Romanian State as consultant in the CEC sale, which will most likely be JP Morgan, to put out a request for bids. With this Martin Grull gave official confirmation that BA-CA would take part in the CEC privatisation, coming after two other major Austrian banks, Erste Bank and Raiffeisen Bank, made public their similar intentions. ZF