The 722,918 shares were issued within the Employee Share Ownership (ESOP) and the Management Stock Option (MSOP) programs and have raised Erste Bank’s shares to a total 317.01 million.

Employees who obtained shares through one of the two programs are obligated to refrain from selling these for at least one year.

Erste Bank posted net profit in 2007 worth €1.174 billion, following record performance in the fourth quarter, when the bank registered net profit of €336.8 million.

Erste Bank shares will be listed under symbol EBS on the Vienna and Prague Stock Exchanges and the international category of the Bucharest Stock Exchange.

The market value of the Austrian bank amounts to RON 49.34 bln (€13.44 bln), based on the RON 156 /per share quotation, set in Friday’s BVB session. (NewsIn)