Raiffeisen raises capital by 40m euros

Austria’s Raiffeisen Group has added 40 million euros to the share capital of its Raiffeisen Romania branch, following a decision to raise capital adopted by the board in early February.

According to released data, the company now has a share capital of 11,962.59 billion ROL (the equivalent of almost 328 million euros).

Following the subscription of new stock, the parent company, Raiffeisen International, now owns 99.49% of the capital. Before the move, the majority stakeholder controlled 99.44%, with the remaining shares belonging to a mixture of legal persons (0.41%) and natural persons (0.15%).

The operation to raise share capital was performed with contributions in cash by existing shareholders.

The last operation of this kind was last summer, when Raiffeisen raised its capital by almost 45 million euros. In doing this the majority stakeholder is supporting the rapid expansion of the bank’s loans portfolio and overall operations.

“We have raised the bank’s share capital in order to support its development policy. We want to grow significantly, both on the retail segment and the corporate segment, and to strengthen our market share. This new capital raise again strengthens the importance and confidence the group associates with its Romanian branch,” said Stephen van Groningen, Raiffeisen Bank chairman.

At the end of this month, Raiffeisen will transfer its central headquarters to the new building dominating Bucharest’s Piata Charles de Gaulle, where it will occupy five floors.

“The building is accessible, visible, close enough to our operational centre, and corresponds to the vision of Raiffeisen Bank being a banking market leader through innovation and dynamism,” said Van Groningen.

The ground floor will host a branch that will give a new image to the services Raiffeisen provides to its private customers. It will be equipped with machines that customers can operate without the help of a bank employee. The new “self service” terminals are currently being tested. Last summer, the Romanian bank  market started to become acquainted with this new banking services model through the ING Bank project.

Early next month will see a new deputy chairman appointed, who will be responsible for the retail services of the bank. The position is expected to be filled by Razvan Munteanu, 39, who currently works for Citibank Hungary.  razvan.voican@zf.ro