List of bidders for OTP Bank’s Romanian subsidiary is getting shorter

By bne IntelliNews August 1, 2023

Two banks are understood to have left the race to buy OTP Bank’s Romanian subsidiary; Erste Bank’s bid was seen as too weak and UniCredit pulled out of the bidding process, according to Profit.

Consequently, only two bidders – Raiffeisen Bank International and Banca Transnilvania – are left on the shortlist to buy OTP’s Romanian subsidiary at a price estimated at at least €300mn.

"From what I understand, the seller analysed the bids received, and we were not very aggressive in the first round, so obviously the shortlist includes competitors who bid more," the financial director of the Austrian banking group Erste, Stefan Doerfler told Bloomberg Television.

Recently, UniCredit officials also stated that the Italian bank withdrew from the process for the acquisition of OTP Romania. 

OTP put the Romanian subsidiary up for sale in May. The Hungarian group is looking to exit Romania, where it has a relatively small market share, despite multiple attempts to expand through acquisitions. OTP Bank tried to acquire Banca Romaneasca in 2017, but the transaction was rejected by Romania’s central bank, the National Bank of Romania (BNR).

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