Romania to keep CEC for two years at least - Finmin

The Romanian government is not planning to privatise Casa de Economii si Consemnatiuni (CEC). To a question by Portfolio.hu, Finance Minister Sebastian Vladescu said they had no intention to sell CEC for at least two years.

In hopes of getting a better price Romania has been putting off the privatisation of a 69.9% stake in CEC, the "people's bank" under communism, seen by analysts as one of the last chances to expand in fast-growing eastern Europe.

CEC will spend the following year with reorganisation. Vladescu said there was no decision even on the method of the sell-off, and Initial Public Offering (IPO) is also among the possibilities just as the sale to a professional investor.

Hungary's OTP Bank and the National Bank of Greece (NBG) were also among the potential buyers, but the cabinet called off the sale as it wanted quite a different price than what the bidders offered.

portfolio.hu