French-born Patrick Gelin, BRD-SocGen's chairman could end histerm at the helm of the second-largest bank on the market in a fewmonths, with the French group, Societe Generale, preparing anotherFrench banker to replace him, banking sources say.
Gelin, who turns 64 in December, may retire, the quoted sourcessay. He could be replaced by an experienced banker of SocGen, whohas spent the last few years as chief executive of the Egyptiansubsidiary of the group, and as vice-president of the Czech branch,Komercni Banka, before that. The transition at the top of BRD couldlast until the beginning of next year, during which time the newchairman should familiarise himself with the bank.
"BRD-Groupe Societe Generale does not comment on informationabout the possible changes to the management team of the bank andreserves the right to go public with such information as soon asthe group's decision-making structures decide on such changes," BRDsaid.
Gelin has been chief executive officer of BRD since April 2001,adding the position of chairman in October 2004. He has had twoterms at the helm of BRD, which is quite a rare occurrence, provingthe trust placed in him by the majority shareholder. In his eightyears at the helm, the bank's assets went up from 2 billion eurosto 11.7 billion euros, with profit reaching 368 million euros lastyear.
Last summer, Gelin was also appointed member of the GeneralManagement Board of Societe Generale, the second managementstructure after the Executive Board, in recognition of the greaterimportance BRD's business has for the French group.
He has been working for Societe Generale since 1970 and beforecoming to Romania in 2001, he ran the London subsidiary of thegroup for three years.
During his two terms, Gelin continued the restructuring processthat the French started after the acquisition of the bank from thestate in 1999, and in 2003 launched an aggressive retail growthprogramme, which led to the expansion of the network to more than930 branches.
As its operations grew, new entities were created around BRD,turning it into a financial group, which includes leasing, consumerfinance, vehicle fleet management, pension fund management, assetmanagement, corporate finance and life insurance companies.
Gelin owns a stake in BRD, having acquired shares throughseveral transactions last autumn, when the price had plummeted as aresult of the crisis and when Societe Generale rounded off itsstake to 59.23%. The bank's market capitalisation currentlyrevolves around 2 billion euros.
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