KBC Consumer Finance IFN, consumer loan company recently established by the Belgian KBC Group which also controls Romstal Leasing, will increase its share capital by up to €12.2 million, through a cash infusion from shareholders, an operation approved on 30 November during an Extraordinary General Shareholder’s Meeting.

The company’s share capital is now worth €200,100. The increase will come from the issuing of 132,000 new shares each with a nominal value of RON 317.51. Following the increase, the shareholder ratio in the consumer loan company will remain the same, with KBC Bank NV owning 99.95 percent of the company’s shares, and the remaining 0.05 percent with KBC Group NV.

KBC controls Romstal Leasing and INK Broker de Asigurare on the Romanian market, whose majority share packages it took over at the end of last year for €70 mln (RON 240 mln) from Romstal Imex.

The KBC financial group is present in almost all Central and Eastern European countries, including Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia. KBC Group NV (KBC) is listed on the Euronext exchange and the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. The group’s share capital is €32 billion, and it is one of the largest group’s in Europe, with 51,000 employees and 11 million clients. KBC participated in the bid for the privatization of Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR), eventually won by the Austrian Erste Bank. At the end of September, KBC had assets exceeding €350.32 bln, up 7.6 percent compared to December 2006.