NBG wants a slice of retail market

National Bank of Greece (NBG), the largest Greek financial group, has decided to expand on the Romanian retail market by developing the network of its new acquisition, Banca Romaneasca (Romanian Bank). Albeit operating in Romania for a number of years and researching into several expansion possibilities in the meantime, the bank has been working through a branch that accounts for 0.5% of the banking system.

“The delay is due to practical reasons. We have been looking for opportunities to expand in Romania, but such things do not come about every day,” Theodoros Karatzas, NBG governor, said at the end of last week.

Although preparing to take full control of Banca Romaneasca, NBG does not plan on changing its name. “We are not following the lead of other European banks that installed themselves with their own name on the market, but we will not hide our identity, either,” the NBG governor said.

There will be management changes, however, with representatives of the Greek group set to be appointed to various positions. Petru Rares will remain president of the bank. “Our main goal is to develop retail operations and we feel we need at least 40 offices for a proper territorial coverage in this regard,” Apostolos Tamvakakis, NBG’s vice-governor said. The group will introduce new products and services from the parent bank’s portfolio.

NBG is now controlling 81.65% in Banca Romaneasca, a stake it bought from the Romanian-American Enterprise Fund (RAEF) in October. Another 6.8% are held by an individual, Ion Basgan, 5.3% are held by Arcom company and the remaining 6.3% by various other shareholders.

Banca Romaneasca’s assets were worth 138.5 million euros in mid this year, accounting for 1% of the total banking system.

The takeover of Banca Romaneasca has pushed the Greek group’s assets in Romania to 250 million euros, as explained by Tamvakakis. The value of the deal was not disclosed.

“We have a 12-year business plan. We know very well where we are headed, especially for the next three years,” Tamvakakis said. Theodoros Karatzas, NBG governor, does not rule out a second takeover to consolidate the group’s position on the Romanian market. “It is very early to be talking about another acquisition, yet we are not ruling anything out. Banca Romaneasca will pursue an organic growth and if the conditions for another acquisition are met, then a merger will be in order.” Karatzas specified the National Bank of Greece was planning to propose the other shareholders of Banca Romaneasca to buy their respective stakes. razvan.voican@zf.ro