Țuca Zbârcea & Asociații advised Erste Bank Group AG on reaching an agreement worth half a billion Euros

Țuca Zbârcea & Asociații’s lawyers have been advising Erste Bank for the past months on reaching an agreement in principle with four of the bank’s five minority shareholders regarding the takeover of a 24.12% stake in Romania’s largest commercial bank, Banca Comercială Română (BCR).

Țuca Zbârcea & Asociații fielded a team led by Deputy Managing Partner Ștefan Damian, also co-head of the firm’s Banking and Finance practice group. The agreement was reached after several months of discussions and negotiations with five SIF minority shareholders in BCR and it will mark the largest transaction concluded in Romania since the beginning of 2011 and also one of the most important in the financial services sector since the advent of the crisis.

Austrian bank Erste Group Bank AG will acquire 24.12% stake in Banca Comercială Română (BCR). The bank has reached an agreement in principle with SIF Banat Crisana, SIF Transilvania, SIF Muntenia and SIF Oltenia whereby Erste Group will buy 2.6 billion shares in BCR.

Subject to the successful completion of the respective SIF corporate approval processes, the acquisition will be carried out in a series of transactions. SIF Moldova has the possibility to enter into the same agreement if it decides to do so. According to bank’s officials, the total value of the transaction amounts to EUR 435.0 million based on Erste Group closing share price as at 12 September 2011 of EUR 20.43, while based on a one month average share price of Erste Group of EUR 25.69, it amounts to EUR 519.7 million.