New player drawn to leasing market

Greek Egnatia Bank Group, shyly operating on the Romanian banking market for three years now, has decided to try its hand at the leasing market by establishing a company in this regard. This decision is interesting, all the more so since the Greek have preferred to wait and see for a number of years and have kept a rather low profile on the banking market. “We estimate the leasing company to become operational some time in September. Its share capital will be about two million euros and the shareholding structure is to become final soon,” Sorin Fota, Egnatia Bank Romania vice-president told Ziarul Financiar. At least from where things stand now, the new leasing company will focus on corporate bodies, by financing cars at first and then moving on to real estate or equipment. The plans of the Greek group for the Romanian market seem very bold at first, particularly because one of the executives of the Greek bank – Vassilis Keltsopoulos at the end of last week told a Greek publication another bank on the Romanian market had been eyed for a takeover. Egnatia Bank entered Romania in 2000 when it took over BNP-Dresdner Bank’s Romanian operations. ZF