Raiffeisen Investment closes down domestic operations

Raiffeisen Investment has announced the closing of the Romanian-based office effective as from July 1, 2014, decision which is subject to a new regional strategy and which includes similar decisions as regards offices from Sofia, Belgrade, Kiev, Moscow and Vienna, according to ZF.

Ioana Filipescu, Head of the company since 2004, confirmed that the decision concerns the reorganization strategy to be implemented by the Austrian Group, adding that it has not been affected by the domestic economic environment. Hence, she outlined that it should not be regarded as a related signal either, reads the same source.

The Romanian subsidiary of Raiffeisen Investment was established in 1998, being one of the most active investment banking in the domestic market with respect to mergers and acquisitions.  Over the past years the company has been involved in several major transactions such as the acquisition of insurance company Asiban which was taken over by Groupama for 350 million euro, serving as the latter’s adviser. It has also acted as adviser of Labormed Pharma when it was acquired by the private equity fund Advent International, transaction worth 121 million euro.

Last year, the company posted net revenues of some 2.3 million lei which generated loss of nearly 350,000 lei, as per the information available on the Ministry of Finance's website.

Raiffeisen Group which incorporates the investment banking division, has a broad range of operations in Romania where its presence additionally includes Raiffeisen Bank, Raiffeisen Leasing, Raiffeisen Asset Management, Raiffeisen Banca pentru Locuinte.