Wolf Theiss advised UniCredit Bank Austria AG ("UCBA") in acquiring a 45 per cent shareholding interest in UniCredit Tiriac Bank S.A. ("Tiriac Bank") from Tiriac Holdings Ltd. As a result, UCBA’s equity stake in Tiriac Bank increases from 50.6 per cent to 95.6 per cent. The closing of the transaction occurred on June 5. The selling price and other transaction details have not been publicly disclosed.

UCBA was advised by the Vienna and Bucharest offices of Wolf Theiss. The Wolf Theiss team was led by Vienna partners Eva Fischer (M&A) and Nikolaus Paul (Finance), and included Markus Taufner (associate) and Marcell Nemeth (counsel). In Bucharest, the team was led by Ileana Glodeanu (partner, M&A) and included Claudia Chiper (senior associate), Diana Stetiu, Mircea Ciocirlea and Ramona Hromei (associates).

Eva Fischer stated, "We are proud to have been able to support UCBA on this important transaction and as indeed we have supported them over the past 10 years with respect to the partnership between UCBA and the Tiriac-Group. Quality and consistency are important values at Wolf Theiss which we could prove in this transaction, given that the same core team of Wolf Theiss lawyers have advised UCBA since they first acquired their majority stake in Tiriac Bank in 2005."

This acquisition marks one of the largest transactions in the active Romanian banking M&A market in recent years and follows on the heels of a number of other M&A transactions handled by Wolf Theiss in the financial services sector in Romania.

UniCredit Tiriac Bank S.A., a Romanian bank headquartered in Bucharest, is a member of UniCredit’s CEE network. Around 3,350 employees are serving retail and corporate customers in over 180 branches in Romania.