Rothschild to sell Asiban

European investment bank Rothschild, which is working as a consultant for Erste Bank in the acquisition process of the BCR, has been authorised to handle the sale of insurance company Asiban, having fought off competition from American bank Merrill Lynch in the tender, sources from the financial market told ZF. The tender to appoint the consultant was organised by three of Asiban’s shareholders – BCR, BRD-SocGen and Banca Transilvania, which decided to sell their stakes that account for 75% of the insurance company. The fourth shareholder, CEC (The Romanian Savings Bank), which has a pre-emptive right, has yet to make a decision on what action to take. However, given the budgetary constraints regarding other spending priorities, it is rather unlikely that the state will decide in favour of Asiban being taken over by CEC. Asiban’s sale could be this year’s biggest transaction in the financial sector. Over the last few years, the average price of high-value acquisitions on the insurance market was 0.8 euros per one euro of the turnover (gross underwritten premiums), which would take Asiban’s value to around 100 million euros.