UniCredito feeds another 10m euros into Romanian business

The Italians at UniCredito will invest another 10 million euros in their Romanian operations by yearend, as they plan to be among the leading players in the Romanian banking system. The niches targeted and considered promising are the private pension fund market, leasing, mutual funds, the mortgage and consumer credits.

“Although the bank is overcapitalised, we decided to increase the capital by another 10 million euros by yearend. Furthermore, any time new business opportunities arise that require additional capital, UniCredito Group is fully committed to increasing its Romanian investment. We want to be high-profiled in the countries we operate in and Romania is no exception to this. We plan to be one of the top banks in the system in terms of profitability and efficiency,” Carlo Salvatori, Italian UniCredito Group’s president told Ziarul Financiar in an exclusive statement.

This increase will boost UniCredit Romania’s capital to more than 23 million euros, making it one of the top banks in the system in terms of capital.

The Italians’ moves are eagerly expected by the other players, as the entry of UniCredito and of Austria-based Raiffeisen on the Romanian market were among the most important and promising banking transactions.

Italian group UniCredito entered the Romanian market in 2001 when it bought the controlling interests in Demirbank Romania, a branch of the Turkish group operating under the same name. The deal was worth $16.6 million, with the Italians buying 62.5% in the bank at the time. They did not stop at this and kept buying everything they could, including the stake of IFC and of three financial investment companies, so that UniCredito now holds more than 99% in UniCredit Romania.

“The potential we found here was and still is very big. That is precisely why we set such bold goals such as doubling the number of offices and developing and consolidating retail services,” Salvatori says.

He added the banking-related sectors, such as private pension funds, leasing or insurance would get special attention, though not necessarily for investments. “These are sectors every player on the financial market is interested in, yet we do not regard them as an investment target, but as potential for partnerships,” UniCredito’s president explained.

Inquired about those rumours on the banking market about the Italian group’s interest in taking over Banca Tiriac, Salvatori specified he knew of no such thing and that “what we know is we want to grow organically and do so in full gear.”

UniCredito’s assets amounted to 136.4 million euros by mid this year, so that it ranked 14th among the entities in the Romanian banking system, and accounted for 1% of the market. oana.nuta@zf.ro