Warsaw (Puls Biznesu) - Eureko, the Dutch insurance holding, is disappointed with Poland but will patiently fight for PZU. Plus it has its own ideas concerning a bank in Poland.
Eureko, the shareholder of PZU, Poland's leading insurance company, does not like the idea promoted by PZU concerning founding its own bank. It has another idea.
"We specialize in insurance and that's the only thing we're good at. In Poland, however, Rabobank is the shareholder of BGZ, a bank owned partly by the state. I believe we will be able to get majority in the bank after theyear 2007, which would enable us to expand banking activity", Maarten Dijkshoorn, Eureko CEO said.
Today Rabobank has 37 percent in Eureko. The idea differs from the one presented by Cezary Stypulkowski, PZU CEO who said that the company could build a bank or become a good partner for Bank BPH if the merger with Pekao fails.
As far as the six-year-old clash with the Polish government over the 21 percent stake in PZU is concerned, Eureko is going to fight.
"We waited 15 years for the merger of Achmea with Interpolis so we can wait for PZU", Maarten Dijkshoorn assured.
Eureko gross premium rose 19 percent to EUR 6.58 billion last year. The net income fell from EUR 1.02 billion to EUR 706m. PZU had EUR 800m of net income against EUR 3.44 billion of sales. Last year, Eureko consolidated EUR 270m generated by PZU to its net income. The company estimates that if it takes over the stake in PZU, the Polish insurance company will generate 38 percent of its gross premium.