American Chamber of Commerce in Romania

Þuca Zbârcea & Asociaþii’s lawyers have been advising Erste Bank for the past months on reaching an agreement in principle with four of the bank’s five minority shareholders regarding the takeover of a 24.12% stake in Romania’s largest commercial bank, Banca Comercialã Românã (BCR).

Þuca Zbârcea & Asociaþii fielded a team led by Deputy Managing Partner ªtefan Damian, also co-head of the firm’s Banking and Finance practice group. The agreement was reached after several months of discussions and negotiations with five SIF minority shareholders in BCR and it will mark the largest transaction concluded in Romania since the beginning of 2011 and also one of the most important in the financial services sector since the advent of the crisis.

Austrian bank Erste Group Bank AG will acquire 24.12% stake in Banca Comercialã Românã (BCR). The bank has reached an agreement in principle with SIF Banat Crisana, SIF Transilvania, SIF Muntenia and SIF Oltenia whereby Erste Group will buy 2.6 billion shares in BCR.

Subject to the successful completion of the respective SIF corporate approval processes, the acquisition will be carried out in a series of transactions. SIF Moldova has the possibility to enter into the same agreement if it decides to do so. According to bank’s officials, the total value of the transaction amounts to EUR 435.0 million based on Erste Group closing share price as at 12 September 2011 of EUR 20.43, while based on a one month average share price of Erste Group of EUR 25.69, it amounts to EUR 519.7 million.

Note to Editors:

Þuca Zbârcea & Asociaþii is one of the leading independent full-service law firms in Romania and the top financial performer in the local legal market since 2007, as reported by various local and foreign media.

Þuca Zbârcea & Asociaþii offers the whole range of legal services, and has been recommended by prestigious specialised international directories in areas of practice such as: corporate & commercial; mergers, acquisitions & privatisation; litigation & international arbitration; energy & natural resources; banking & finance and others.

With offices in Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca, the firm is the sole independent Romanian law firm with a representative office in Spain. In addition to its business partnership network in Romania, the firm also entered into a strategic “best friend” cooperation agreement with law firm Þurcan Cazac, the leader of the business law market in Chiºinãu, the capital of the Republic of Moldova.

The firm has garnered a string of local, regional and international accolades, having been named the “Law Firm of the Year” for the past four years and the “Most Innovative Continental European Law Firm” in the Financial Times’ Innovative Lawyers Report. It received Chambers Europe’s most prestigious award for excellence – the “Law Firm of the Year Award” (Chambers Europe Awards for Excellence 2010) and “Law Firm of the Year in Eastern Europe and the Balkans Award” at The Lawyer European Awards 2010 ceremony.

Þuca Zbârcea & Asociaþii’s client portfolio comprises many local and international companies, prominent financial institutions, as well as public authorities and government institutions. A selective list of clients includes: Erste Bank / Banca Comercialã Românã (BCR), OMV Petrom, CEZ, Gabriel Resources Ltd. / Roºia Montanã Gold Corporation, Rompetrol, ArcelorMittal, Carrefour, Romtelecom, Orkla Foods, Colgate-Palmolive, GED Capital Development, Cadbury, the Bucharest Stock Exchange, BRD-Groupe Société Générale, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Philip Morris, Alstom Transport, Siemens, Ericsson Telecommunications Romania and ING Real Estate.

Þuca Zbârcea & Asociaþii now boasts 90 lawyers, including 21 partners.

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