BCR seeks 3bn euros on capital markets

BCR, the biggest bank in Romania, has launched a financing plan that will see it borrow as much as 3bn euros through a sale of bonds with various medium-term maturities from Romanian or foreign investors. The bank has not specified the moment it’s due to borrow this sum. “The programme represents a financing source diversification instrument, allowing BCR to raise resources on the basis of a simplified, standardised documentation accepted by investors,” says Florian Dangl, executive director of the Balance Management Department. BCR’s move comes at a time when the state is also trying to raise financing from capital markets, with the two entities to compete through the large sums they want to borrow, the more so as BCR mainly targets the domestic market. The borrowing programme had been approved by BCR’s general assembly of shareholders as early as last year. BRD, the second-largest bank in the system, also has its shareholders’ permission to sell bonds worth as much as 600m euros, but difficult capital market conditions have so far put a damper on such moves. BCR will sell bonds of various types, in RON or euros, as part of the programme.