Banking sources say that Banca Transilvania, OTP Bank, Intesa and Raiffeisen Bank have shown interest in Garanti Bank Romania.
Garanti Bank Romania replied: “The policy of the Group is no comment on rumors or speculations.”
The talks picked up speed at the end of last year, with several meetings between the interested parties and the management in Romania held early this year to present the bank and answer questions. The financial offers, at least indicative ones, should be submitted in early February.
BBVA values Garanti Bank Romania, which ranks 10th in the local banking system, at a multiple of 1.1 to 1.3 of its net assets.
Deals with banks in Romania in the last four years started from a multiple of 0.3 to 0.8 of the of the net assets.
BBVA wants a premium for its Romanian bank because it is quite clean, without issues, has a customer-oriented management, a good portfolio of individual and corporate customers and a low non-performing loan ratio, lower than the system average even.
Garanti Bank Romania has a market share of 2.27%, more than EUR2.2 billion assets and more than EUR250 million equity capitals.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)