31 August 2009

Brokers: Banca Transilvania not for sale



After the yesterday’s deal that involved 2.3% equity in Banca Transilvania, rumors regarding the sale of the whole company or a stake in it continued to buzz in the market. Brokers interviewed by Wall-Street poured cold water, saying the odds were low, given all the necessary procedures that need be followed before engaging in the takeover of companies listed at the stock exchange, for which there are no bids submitted yet.
Until an official confirmation, it all remains a rumor

The rumors regarding a deal with TLV shares started to emerge since end-2008, when the bank dismissed all information in the media reports regarding the sale of the bank adding that a decision to sell the business must be approved unanimously by all shareholders.

In the yesterday’s session at Bucharest Stock Exchange, a 2.4% package of TLV shares was subject to an active trading. The 24.3 million shares were involved in 5 deals. The last share price the transactions were carried was 1.62 lei/share and amounted to 39.36 million lei (9.33 million euros).

Claudiu Silaghi, member in Banca Transilvania’s Board of Directors sold 13.06 million shares, namely 1.2% of the bank’s share capital. Subsequently, Silaghi obtained 21.15 million lei (nearly 5 million euros).

Brokers interviewed by Wall-Street say the odds of a sellout of Banca Transilvania over the next 12 months are minimal for two reasons: deals that involve banks, especially in Eastern Europe are rare, and especially in a crisis-ridden environment. Furthermore, all parties involved in the deal must follow all the necessary procedures before engaging in a takeover of a company listed at the stock exchange.

Over the past few months, deals have been almost nonexistent, M&A market relapsing to 2004 levels. Specialists say potential buyers are more reticent and deals involving banks are extremely rare, especially in Eastern Europe.

The most recent bank deal took place few weeks ago when Royal Bank of Scotland sold its Asian branches.

Andrei Ciubotaru told Wall-Street the share price may have been between 1.40 lei and 1.50. In this situation, the TLV shares were overvalued, given the yesterday’s closing price of 1.61 lei.

Robert Rekkers (photo) told Wall-Street in a phone interview he hadn’t been involved in any deal yesterday. Two weeks ago, Rekkers acquired 15,000 shares issued by the lender, worth 5,000 euros.

The 15,000 TLV shares were bought at a median price of 1.43 lei/share and overall the stake was evaluated at 21,450 lei or approximately 5,000 euros. Robert Rekkers has recently bought another 42,650 TLV shares at 1.0517 lei/share.

Brokers say the yesterday’s deals were simply exchange of equities between shareholders, a common practice among other listed companies.



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