Bogdan Pleșuvescu, Deputy General Director at Banca Transilvania, participated in the conference „Native Romanian capital – the next level: large competitive companies at regional and European level and economic stimulation policies ”, organized by Governance Course, on the occasion of which he/she made the following statements:

Regional expansion of Romanian businesses:

• Romania does not lack domestic capital, nor capital in general. Romania has a problem with economic coherence. And here I believe we need to raise this issue to the net, because otherwise we risk always discussing only effects and not discussing causes.
  
  
• When we talk about regional champions or regional expansion, you need to have a system behind you that helps you. And I am not only referring to the banking system, but to an entire ecosystem, set up and established by the authorities, so that Romanian investments can scale.
  
  
• Because, after all, that's what we're talking about: scaling Romanian investments. Once you have become a champion in the country, in order to expand, to broaden your customer base and turnover, you need help from the governance area.
  
  
• We see that these things work if we talk about Poland, Hungary or Germany – there are always governmental projects that help local companies expand abroad. And we, at this moment, have a lot of know-how, we have a lot of desire to act, but we get lost in execution.
  
  
• The execution takes very long, we have plans and strategies, we pay all kinds of consultants to establish the route and schedule for us, however, when it comes to implementation, executing and delivering, we suffer a very large lack of coherence and interest, especially when government changes occur.

The role of the banking system in financing projects:

• The question is what the banking system and domestic capital should do now to finance development, not just to compensate for possible imbalances in Romania's economy. Because, if we look at financial intermediation, in Romania we are somewhere around 50% of GDP, while in Europe the degree of financial intermediation is over 100%.
  
  
• If we look at how much the banks finance the non-governmental system, we are talking about somewhere around 24% of GDP, while the average in Europe is 90%. So these projects must somehow be found that allow banks and other participants in the domestic capital to finance these projects, so that the increase in the degree of financial intermediation means investments in development, in scaling the respective business, both in the country and abroad.
  
  
• At this moment, the main difficulty of banks is to identify these projects in a way that they can finance them. Because, unlike other financiers, banks have a very well regulated system for assessing risks, the financial activity of a company, for checking the business plans of that company, for conducting various stress tests, and for allocating capital or funds only to those projects they consider viable.
  
  

What does an ideal company for financing that intends to expand regionally look like:

• An ideal company for financing must be a company that has already demonstrated in Romania that it is performing well in its segment. You cannot obtain financing in Romania for expansion if you do not have something solid, very well realized, implemented in the country.
  
  
• Then, you need to have a very well-established, transparent corporate governance structure, in which the decision-making process is very clearly regulated, and a coherent long-term business plan, which includes an investment plan, a reasoning behind making those respective investments, whether you make them horizontally or vertically. It is important to have this statement of reasons: why you want to make the respective investment.
  
  
• In our portfolio, we have clients who benefit from financing from Banca Transilvania precisely to expand their businesses outside the country's borders, whether we talk about Italy, Spain, Germany, or Hungary. It is true that we are not at the level we see, for example, in Poland, but it is a step, and we believe that these things will multiply as there will be more success stories from Romanian entrepreneurs who want to expand abroad.
  
  

The experience of the Transilvania Bank Group's expansion in the Republic of Moldova:

• The experience of people who go abroad ensures you two aspects. The first is related to the fact that, at the moment when people from Romania, from the business here, go into the business abroad and participate in the acquisition, development, and transformation of that business outside the borders of Romania, this synergy, transformation, implementation of projects and organizational culture happens much faster, because there are people who already know the local company and ensure this transfer of know-how as quickly as possible.
  
  
• And a much more important thing, which will become apparent over time: those people who go outside the country’s borders and participate in such transformations abroad are, in fact, the basis for the expansion of Romanian business in the future, because they will acquire knowledge and skills that those who remain in Romania do not have. They represent a very good nursery for the organization itself for future developments. For example, some of the people in whom we invested in the Republic of Moldova were brought into Banca Transilvania, and they will most likely be involved in any expansions.