Erste Bank likely to be listed on BVB next month

The operation will be made through passporting, which involves a plan approved by the stock market regulator in the issuer’s home country which is accepted in another member state, as the basis of a public offer or admission of securities to a regulated market.

Erste Bank’s CEO, Manfred Wimmer, said the BVB listing is likely to attract new local investors, including pension funds. “We will provide investors on the Romanian market the opportunity to diversify their portfolio with shares of a foreign company and will allow Romanian Erste shareholders to trade their stocks in Bucharest,” Wimmer added.

Erste is already listed on the stock markets in Vienna and Prague.

The Austrian bank posted some €837.9 million in net profits for the first nine months of 2007, following payment of minority interest, at 27.0 percent higher year-on-year.