SIF Muntenia stalls Banca Agricola sale

Privatisation of Banca Agricola (the Agricultural Bank – BA) is far from conclusion yet. Societatea de Investitii Financiare (Financial Investment Company – SIF) Muntenia, one of the minority shareholders, filed a suit challenging the capital increase requested by those to have purchased the controlling interests in the bank.

The buyer is a consortium comprising Austria-based Raiffeisenbank and the Romanian-American Investment Fund from the Privatisation Authority (APAPS).

The management of Banca Agricola was extremely outraged by SIF Muntenia action, as a lawsuit between the main shareholder, APAPS, and SIF Muntenia may take up a long time, while one of the provisions in the contract was the quick completion of the capital increase.

“I would have expected a little more decency from SIF Muntenia. I can’t help but say it is hard to imagine such a lack of responsibility, given that the alternative to the capital increase is to close down the bank,” Eugen Radulescu, Banca Agricola chairman, told Ziarul Financiar. “SIF no longer has its shareholders’ best interest at heart, as it says, but the opposite,” he added.

SIF Muntenia on May 10 filed the suit against the bank’s main shareholder, with the first trial date to be set for May 24, 2001. The counts highlighted by SIF Muntenia include the successive capital decreases (i.e. 1999) and increases (this one included), which led to a reduction in its participation in the bank.

At the same time, SIF Muntenia did not endorse the 2000 activity report, as it does not specify the losses registered throughout 1997-1999.

This was only expectable to a certain extent, as ever since the General Shareholders Assembly on April 21, the four SIFs, Muntenia, Moldova, Banat-Crisana and Transilvania, holding some 22% in the bank together, voted against the 6,455bn lei increase in the bank’s capital.

“We are trying to protect our investment in Banca Agricola. That’s all there is to it. Should we get compensations or not, these are just words. I hope SIF Muntenia will no longer lose this time, as it happened in Bancorex’s case,” Gheorghe Popa, SIF Muntenia CEO, told Ziarul Financiar.

Raiffeisenbank and the Romanian-American Investment Fund are planning to buy 98% in the bank for $15 million and promised a $37 million capital increase to be done at a later time.