JC Flowers & Co sells First Bank Romania

Private Equity Wire

JC Flowers & Co, the New York-based private equity firm founded by former Goldman Sachs partner James Christopher Flowers and focusing on the financial services industry, has sold First Bank (Romania) to Italian banking group Intesa Sanpaolo. 

Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.

JC Flowers acquired Piraeus Bank Romania from Greece’s Piraeus Bank in 2018, which was later renamed to First Bank. In 2019, First Bank acquired Bank Leumi.

First Bank and Intesa Sanpaolo Bank Romania will have total assets of approximately €3.2bn, serving more than 140,000 customers and employing over 1,500 people, according to a press statement.

Dr Ilinca Rosetti, an operating partner at JC Flowers, said that the firm had transformed First Bank’s operations through technology investments, the shedding of non-core assets and team improvements, describing the sale as creating a “top 10 bank in Romania”.

Clifford Chance Badea and Société Générale advised JC Flowers on the transaction.

The full article is available here. This article was published at Private Equity Wire.