The privatization commission of the Romanian Savings House-CEC announced on Tuesday that Hungarian bank OTP and the National Bank of Greece - NBG have “satisfactory offers” for the takeover of CEC, while a third bidder, Raiffeisen Zentralbank-Raiffeisen International, left the race.

The offers of the three bidders were presented today as one of the final stages of the privatization of CEC, a bank known for its extensive network in rural Romania.

But Finance minister Sebastian Vladescu failed to provide exact figures of the money OTP and NBG are ready to pay to take over some two thirds of CEC shares. Each of the two banks will start negotiations for the final form of the contract next Tuesday.

The Romanian state sells 69.9% of CEC including a 9.9% quota that will go to the controversial Proprietatea Fund, aimed at offering stocks in various privatized companies as compensation for people whose properties were confiscated by the Communist regime.

CEC reported a net profit of 17.6 million RON (4.88 million euro), while bank assets exceeded 6 bln lei in the first six months of 2006, 15.4% more than those reported by end of June 2005.