Austria’s leading banks have arranged a successful $200m syndicated loan for Romania’s largest bank, Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR).
The loan, the first international syndicated loan launched by a Romanian bank, was understood to be very well received by investors.
Led by a four-bank consortium, including Bank Austria Creditanstalt, Erste Bank der Osterreichischen Sparkassen and Reiffeisen Zentralbank Osterreich (RZB), the order books were two times oversubscribed and the deal was subsequently upsized by $100m.
The documents accompanying the transaction will be signed in the near future.
The loan is for a five-year period, with a grace period of four years and at Libor plus 200 basis points.
The $200m will be used by BCR to develop further lending activities at all market segments from large corporates to medium-sized companies and retail.
“The transaction’s great success reconfirms the excellent reputation that BCR enjoys in Romania and abroad,” BCR president Nicolae Danila said, following the deal’s closure.
In 1997 BCR also entered the international financial market with a bond issue, which was also the first in the country and had no governmental guarantees. BCR is by far the largest bank in the market, accounting for an overall 31% market share.
The bank, which is in the process of privatisation and in which the European Bank (EBRD) and the World Bank’s IFC recently bought a combined stake of 25%, reports that the number of its customers rose by 25% during 2003.
