OTP Bank looking for bigger shares in markets of Romania and Serbia

Hungary's OTP Bank expects that the decision on its offer to take over the Romanian Banca Romaneasca will be reached by early July, Laszlo Wolf, Deputy CEO of OTP Bank, said for Reuters on Monday, May 22.

– In my estimate, there will be news about the signature of the deal for Banca Romaneasca in late June or early July – Wolf said at the Reuters Central & Eastern Europe Investment Summit and announced that OTP Bank, “if all goes well”, would reach a 7-8% share in the Romanian market.

He believes that, independent of this agreement, it would be good for OTP Bank to reach 6-8%, thereby doubling or tripling the share in the Romanian market. Wolf notes that OTP is considering other opportunities in Romania for increasing the share in the market as well.

As Reuters reminds, central Europe's largest independent lender said this month it had submitted a binding offer for the National Bank of Greece business, which has 109 branches in Romania.

OTP is already a dominant player in Hungary and Bulgaria, and it strives to increase its presence throughout central and eastern Europe and take advantage of the withdrawal of Greek and western European creditors due to less favorable profit outlooks and stricter regulations. Late last year, they bought Splitska Banka in Croatia, a member of France's Societe Generale, Reuters reminds.

In his interview for Reuters, Wolf pointed out that OTP was considering potential opportunities for expanding the operations in Serbia and he also mentioned the acquisition project in Montenegro, which OTP CEO Sandor Csanyi called nearly complete in March, but which appears to have fallen though due to a lack of regulatory approval.

OTP BANK Budapest, Hungary

OTP Bank

Laszlo Wolf

Banca Romaneasca

National Bank of Greece

Splitska Banka

Societe Generale

Sandor Csanyi