OTP Bank trying to find a place in Romania

Hungarian OTP Bank’s plans to buy a bank on the Romanian market seem more and more obvious, which is precisely verified by the recent announcement of its officials. They said it had finished the due diligence process for RoBank and stood “big chances” of being selected for buying the Romanian bank. The statement came from Sandor Csanyi, OTP’s President and CEO, and was circulated by Interfax quoting MTI news agency. Csanyi says OTP plans to develop RoBank’s network from 12 to 150 offices in the short run. This is not the Hungarians’ first attempt to penetrate the Romanian banking system, as they have previously displayed interest in Banca Transilvania or even Banca Comerciala Romana (Romanian Commercial Bank). Early this year, news on the banking market in Bucharest had OTP (Hungary), Piraeus Bank, The Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO) fund, as well as two insurers reportedly interested in RoBank. The potential buyers are now conducting financial and judicial audits at RoBank, with the final bids to be submitted some time soon. The deal will consist in the sale of the entire RoBank stake, in spite of rumours at some point that only the Balli Group would sell. ZF