Banking sources say that Alpha Bank and Vista Bank are looking into the opportunity, which would enable the buyer to grow faster, especially on the Romanian small and medium-sized enterprise segment that all banks are vying for.
The virtual data room is managed by SocGen’s investment banking arm in London.
J.C. Flowers was in talks with UniCredit for several months last year, but the deal fell through at the last minute in December, as UniCredit backed out right before the signing. The deal should have amounted to around EUR150 million.
Following failure with UniCredit, J.C. Flowers is now in talks with other banks in Romania and Alpha Bank and Vista Bank are the most interested.
J.C. Flowers bought Piraeus Bank Romania and then Leumi Bank Romania in 2018, building a lender with a market share of more than 1%. Its policy to buy several banks, consolidate them into one entity and then sell.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)