Erste controls 70 percent of BCR and bought up most of the employees’ shares; however the privatization contract stipulates that the Austrian lender cannot list the bank until October 2009.
The Austrian lender offered in November to either buy the shares from BCR’s employees or to exchange them for Erste shares at a 6:1 exchange rate on the promise that the bank would be listed on BSE.
Erste took over 7.2 percent of the employees’ shares in BCR. Of this stake, two-thirds were exchanged for Erste stock, or about 6.3 million shares, increasing Erste’s share capital by 2 percent. Some one-third of the shares were sold to Erste for a total of 130 million euros. Romanian employees now own 1 percent of Erste's capital.
Source: Newsin
