Unirea turns into Nova Bank

After almost one year of talks and negotiations, a group of Russian investors has managed to legally take over a Romanian bank, Unirea. The Russians had its name changed to Nova Bank. The influence of the Russian investor group was also seen on Monday night when the bank was officially re-launched. President Ion Iliescu, Romania’s Foreign minister Mircea Geoana and the secretary general of the ruling party Cozmin Gusa welcomed the Russian investors and wished them well. One of those who had a major say in the due diligence in order to have the operations in Romania started was Ivan Ivanov, former Russian Deputy Foreign minister until 2000. Ivanov was also Russia’s Foreign Trade minister throughout 1966-1999. Nova Bank is now run by Anatoli Patron (also a member of the Moscow-based Investment and Technology Bank management) and by Alexei Voskoboy, chairman of the Association of Industrialists in Russia. The Romanian party in the Nova Bank management is represented by Zoe Ghinescu, former Banc Post vice-president for over 10 years. ZF