Erste Bank to make firm offer to BCR employees

The Austrians at Erste Bank will make an offer for the 8% stake held by the BCR employees, once the takeover of the largest Romanian bank has been completed, which is expected to happen no later than September 21, Erste officials say. Erste will buy the stock of the employees at a price lower than it paid for the controlling interests in BCR. The BCR employees will therefore be able to sell their shares at a price calculated based on the 7.65 euros/share price Erste paid for 61.88% of the bank, to which a discount will be applied, Erste officials say. The value of the discount will be announced at the time the offer is launched. The Austrian bank will be able to buy up to 2% in BCR this year and up to 3% per year over the next two years, as stipulated in the privatisation contract. A second option for BCR’s employees would be to swap their BCR shares for Erste stock, getting one Erste share for every six BCR shares at the current price of Erste shares. The exchange rate will be decided at the time of the offer, taking into account a 7.65 euros/share price. “Judging by the current price of Erste Bank shares, the conversion rate of BCR shares into Erste shares will be of 6 to 1,” Erste management said yesterday. At 15:32, Romanian time yesterday, Erste shares were quoted at 47.03 euros on the Vienna Stock Exchange.