Dexia drops out of race for CEC

French-Belgian group Dexia, whose assets stood at 509 billion euros at the end of 2005, and which competed for BCR last year, has dropped plans to submit a bid for CEC, banking sources told ZF. The Belgians were displeased with the latest modifications to the privatisation strategy and with the extension of the process that began last autumn. The Government at the end of April decided it would sell only 69.9% in CEC instead of 85% as previously planned. Dexia has run out of patience with CEC’s privatisation and concluded a 2.44 billion dollar deal for the privatisation of Turkish Denizbank in May. After nine months during which it procrastinated and changed its mind about how much of CEC to sell and how to do it, the state now has only four potential buyers left, with the Italians at Monte dei Paschi having dropped out of the race, too.
As a result, competitive pressure is going down and the Finance Ministry already has a short list of investors, which can affect chances of getting a price that can be deemed as satisfactory.
The list of investors expected to submit firm bids by July 17 includes only regional groups, which are already present in Romania: Raiffeisen, OTP and the Greeks at EFG Eurobank and National Bank of Greece. Out of the four, Eurobank has recently confirmed plans for a bid.