Oesterreichische Volksbanken AG’s Romanian banking business made a €170 million ($221 million) loss last year, it said, highlighting the challenge the Austrian lender faces to sell the hived-off unit. Volksbanken needs to sell its 51% stake in its deconsolidated Romania business – which it has entirely written down – by the end of 2015, and sell its 50% stake in VB-Leasing International by the end of 2014. The Romanian loss under local accounting standards was bigger than expected given risk provisions in tough markets, the bank said. But the unit’s equity ratio remained at 15.6% of risk-weighted assets and deposits rose 40%. It said it aimed for deposits in Romania to grow another 30%, or by €200 million, in 2013 as it worked to reduce losses and keep a “reasonable” level of equity there.
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