BCR plans bonds and floatation

Banca Comerciala Romana (Romanian Commercial Bank – BCR) will release an eurobond issue on the international markets in the second half this year. The issue will be worth about 100-150 million euros, the bank officials estimate. “We did not give up the idea of issuing eurobonds on the foreign markets, but postponed it for the second half. The success we had with the syndicated loan (i.e. BCR managed to raise $200 million for five years when it was actually looking for only $100 million at first) allows us to push this decision a little. We will probably try to raise some 100 million euros, and our main goal is to increase the maturity to 7 to 10 years,” Nicolae Danila, BCR president says. He added the eurobond release might actually “pave the way” for a possible floatation of the bank on the international markets. “The listing of BCR’s shares on the capital market is not out of the question, but will not happen this year anyway. I would love to see BCR traded on international markets, even side by side with a strategic investor. Until such time comes, we will have already made a name for ourselves by issuing bonds, people will have heard about us,” Danila explained. ZF