The Belgian bank has been active in Eastern Europe for some time.
The Belgian bank KBC is tipped as the new owner of BRD, the third largest bank in Romania. The Romanian bank is taken over from Société Générale. According to the Belgian newspaper De Tijd, the French bank has asked the investment bank JPMorgan to prepare a sale.
KBC declined to comment on questions from Belgian media. Nevertheless, KBC is considered to have good opportunities. The Belgian bank and insurer has also been active in Central and Eastern Europe for many years. The Czech Republic is KBC's second home market, which is also active in Slovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria. Three years ago, KBC bought the Bulgarian Raiffeisenbank EAD for 1 billion euros. In the same year, KBC bought the Bulgarian pension branch of NN.
In Romania, one bank after another has been sold recently. Last week, OTP Bank, a Hungarian competitor of KBC, sold its Romanian subsidiary to the local Banca Transilvania for almost 350 million euros. Last year, the Italian Intesa Sanpaolo took over the Romanian First Bank.
