Manfred Wimmer, Chief Financial Officer of Erste Group, expressed his hope that the SIFs would have an answer by the end of October.
Wednesday, Erste said it has reached an agreement in principle with investment funds SIF Banat Crisana, SIF Transilvania, SIF Munteania and SIF Oltenia, but not SIF Moldova, to acquire 24.12% or 2.6 billion shares in BCR for EUR435 million in cash and stock via a series of transactions.
The deal, subject to SIF corporate approval proceedings, sets BCR’s value at EUR1.8 billion.
Speaking in a press conference Friday, Wimmer said the four participating SIFs could sell part of their shares in BCR even without approval from their shareholders.
As to SIF Moldova, Wimmer said he didn’t believe the fund will be an inconvenient shareholder in BCR.
“If the managers say they don’t want to sell, then we will continue to work with them,” he said.