This time, the lender used its BT Securities brokerage firm to buy the investment banking activity of Capital Partners, the largest independent consulting firm in the field of mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance in Romania.
Banca Transilvania is therefore entering a market it had no presence on, which posted significant growth to EUR3 billion in 2015. The largest M&A market actors in Romania are the major audit and advisory firms (KPMG, PwC, EY, and Deloitte) and the in-house divisions of banking groups such as Raiffeisen, BCR and BRD.
“Entering the investment banking market is a milestone for Banca Transilvania financial group, as it consolidates our range of products and services provided to large corporate clients,” said Horia Ciorcila, Banca Transilvania’s chairman of the board.
“Our intention is to combine the platform and experience of BT Securities and of the bank’s corporate division with the expertise of Capital Partners in investment banking (…) to take advantage of the growth opportunities on the local market,” he added.
“The goal is to create the biggest financial pole with Romanian capital in one or two years,” Doru Lionachescu, chairman of Capital Partners said on ZF Live on Monday.
Lionachescu founded the advisory firm together with Andrei Diaconescu, Victor Capitanu and Vlad Busila ten years ago.
Doru Lionachescu is one of the most respected bankers in Romania. Prior to establishing Capital Partners, he held management positions with ING, Citibank and Bancpost. In the early nineties he started and served as deputy editor-in-chief of the Capital financial magazine.
The deal, whose value has not been revealed yet, entails taking over the team and the Capital Partners brand, and the new entity will operate as BT Capital Partners. The deal is to be completed by the end of the month and BT Capital will thus fall under the supervision of the Financial Supervision Authority instead of the central bank of Romania.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)