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Thursday, October 07, 2004

Romania Selects JP Morgan As Adviser In CEC Bank Sale

BUCHAREST -(Dow Jones)- The Romanian government said Tuesday it has selected J.P. Morgan (JPM) to act as its adviser in the privatization of state-owned savings bank Casa de Economii si Consemnatiuni SA.

JP Morgan beat Citigroup Global Markets Ltd. (C) and Credit Suisse First Boston Europe (CSF.YY) to get the contract.

The adviser has to decide with the government how much of CEC to sell and will set the terms of the privatization contract. According to CEC Chairman Enache Jiru the government will set by March 2005 a privatization strategy and invite interested investors to bid. The selloff is expected to be concluded by the end of next year.

CEC is the last bank in which the government still holds a majority stake, and the only bank in which deposits are fully guaranteed by the state. After privatization, CEC would lose the state guarantee.

CEC has a network of about 1,400 branches and offices, the largest in Romania. At the end of July, CEC assets totaled 46.05 trillion lei ($1=ROL33,449). It reported a net profit of ROL499.8 billion for the first seven months of this year, more than double the ROL232.29 billion reported in the same period of 2003.

-By Cristi Cretzan, Dow Jones Newswires; (4021) 210-8197; cristi.cretzan@dowjones.com

Posted by Mihai : 10/07/2004 02:04:00 pm