Greece’s Eurobank said on November 10 that it expects to sell its Romanian units to local lender Banca Transilvania (BT) at the end of November. The transaction includes Bancpost, ERB Retail Services IFN and ERB Leasing IFN.

The acquisition of local bank Bancpost will put BT in a position to compete with BCR, controlled by Erste, to be the biggest bank on the Romanian market. In addition, BT plans to acquire an initial stake of over 39% in Victoriabank, Moldova’s third-largest bank.

“During the last few weeks there has been significant progress towards a positive outcome and the negotiations have almost been finalized, as parties are completing final formalities for the signing of an agreement,” Eurobank said in a statement posted on the Athens Stock Exchange website.

“The senior management teams of both ERB and BT would like to re-affirm their commitment to execute a fair and beneficial transaction for all their stakeholders and reassure that the signing of the transaction is estimated for the end of November 2017 and will be announced publicly as soon as the remaining formalities will be finalised,” the bank added.

US investment funds J.C. Flowers and Warburg Pincus were reportedly BT's rivals for Bancpost and wanted to snap up the asset along with Piraeus Bank Romania. Another US-based investment fund, Varde Partners, together with UK investment bank Rothschild Group, was also reported to be bidding for the Romanian branches Bancpost and Piraeus Bank.

Romanian media reported last month that BT was also considering taking over Garanti Bank Romania.