Five bidders in battle over CEC consulting

BNP Paribas is the only investment bank of the six short listed not to make a final bid on Wednesday in the hope of winning the consulting contract for the privatisation of Casa de Economii si Consemnatiuni (Romanian Savings Bank – CEC), officials from CEC’s privatisation committee told Ziarul Financiar.

The battle over the contract, estimated at 3-5 million euros, looks tough. It involves five of the largest investment banks in the world: Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB), JP Morgan, HSBC, Citigroup Global Markets Limited and Rothschild Conseil International.

All five bids were submitted by the established deadline of 2pm, Wednesday.

The winner will be announced in about a month, with the first stage of the bid analysis consisting in the calculation of the technical scores, based on the expertise of the bidders and the human resources they will be allocating to this project.

If the bidders meet the established minimum score, the next step involves the analysis of their financial offers. Since many of the contenders are likely to score above the minimum, it is the price they ask that will make the difference in the end.

The price is made up of a retainer (which is fixed) paid by the World Bank, and a success fee paid by the Finance Ministry, CEC’s current shareholder, after the project is seen through to completion.

This will not only be a battle of prices, but also a battle over the political and financial influence the banks and their partner law firms have on the Romanian market.

The investment banks submitted bids together with a law firm and an audit firm.
laurentiu.ispir@zf.ro