The end of the biggest bank's privatisation

Erste Group, the main shareholder of BCR, is no longer monitored by AVAS with regard to its meeting the conditions of the contract for the privatisation of the biggest bank on the market, three years after the last formalities for the Austrians’ takeover of the majority stake for the record sum of 3.75bn euros were concluded. In October 2006, Andreas Treichl, Erste CEO, became the chairman of BCR’s Supervisory Board and appointed another two people to it. It was the first visible sign of the property transfer and marked the beginning of a long restructuring process at BCR. AVAS is still discussing the agreement signed by SIFs and Erste on delaying BCR listing by two years, until capital market conditions improve. This will become an additional document to the privatisation contract. Three years after the privatisation contract was signed, two of the representatives of the five SIFs, which control 30% in the bank’s share capital, say they are satisfied with the way Erste group has run BCR. Erste representatives chose not to comment on the significance of the last phase of BCR privatisation being concluded.