Best bank – Banca Comerciala Romana
Best debt house – JPMorgan
Best M&A house – Citigroup
Best equity house – ING Barings
Banca Comerciala Romana has maintained a consistent trend of strong growth over the past three years, with its net profit rising from $54 million in 1999 to $164 million in 2002. It has held on to its strong lead in the loan market, with around a 30% market share in corporate loans. The bank is also a leader in corporate and retail deposits, and has around 60% of all SME business.
In capital markets activity, Banca Comerciala Romana’s subsidiary, BCR Securities, is the market leader in municipal bond underwriting and trading. It launched the biggest municipal bond yet seen in Romania in April this year. Another subsidiary, BCR Asset Management, has helped introduce retail investors to the municipal bond market, through a fund called BCR Classic, which specializes in Romanian treasury bills and municipality bonds.
Banca Comerciala Romana’s insurance subsidiary, BCR Asigurari, was recently voted the most dynamic company in insurance by a leading Romanian business magazine.
The bank also leads in trade finance, through its foreign subsidiaries, Anglo-Romanian Bank, Franco-Romanian Bank and Frankfurt-Bucharest Bank, which will be merged into one entity, called Anglo-Romanian Bank, soon. Banca Comerciala Romana is also the market leader in the factoring market.
JPMorgan wins the award for best debt house, having done the most international deals from Romania. It lead managed the country’s e700 million sovereign bond in April 2002, and structured the innovative Termoelectrica $300 million debt deal at the end of the year, which was our corporate deal of the year for central and eastern Europe. The Romanian government wanted to finance both Termoelectrica, the state energy company, and 18 power plants, through a loan. JPMorgan came up with an innovative structure that split the loan into several tranches, and then structured the loans into two bond deals, which priced at around 350 basis points over Libor.
Citigroup wins the award for best M&A house thanks to its advisory role to Romtelecom, 19% of which was bought by Greek telecom OTE for e276 million in January 2003, thereby giving OTE a majority in the Romanian telecom company.
And ING Barings wins the best equity house award, having traded the highest volume on the Bucharest stock exchange in 2002.
