BNP-Dresdner has 10 days to make up its mind

French-German banking group BNP-Dresdner will have to decide by June 30 to whom it will sell its business in Romania, after announcing plans to give up operations here, because the bank’s specialists estimated they could not obtain the profit rate required by shareholders.

Authorised sources say that three letters of intent have been submitted for the acquisition of BNP-Dresdner Romania, Italian bank Banca di Roma and Greek bank Eurobank having voiced interest for the acquisition. The third offer belongs to a group of investors, but it stands fewer chances of being accepted by BNP-Dresdner.

Though Eurobank is now in talks with General Electric for buying a significant stake from Banc Post, the above-quoted sources say the Greeks are particularly interested in acquiring the “corporate” and treasury department.

The bank’s management announced that should it not manage to sell the business, the bank would be closed in about three-six months, a period during which operations would be gradually diminished.

BNP Dresdner is a joint venture of Banque Nationale de Paris (France) and Dresdner Bank (Germany), created for the reunited operations of the two banks on different markets, especially in Central and Southeastern Europe.

The two banks’ shareholders required, through the joint strategy, a 15% gain per share after taxes, a level that cannot be reached on the Romanian market, they maintain. BNP-Dresdner came on the Romanian market in 1998, after it had waited for 18 months to be granted the licence by the National Bank of Romania.