In the merger of the two institutions, the biggest bank in the region would be founded, and 146th biggest in the world as far as the assets are concerned. According to “PB” sources, at the end of last week, a delegation from Budapest headed by Sandor Csanyi, OTP Bank CEO, came to Warsaw.
“There were two purposes of this visit”, a source close to the ministry of the treasury said.
The Hungarians visited Ludwik Sobolewski, the CEO of the Warsaw Stock Exchange because they are interested in dual-listing.
Then, OTP representatives met Aleksander Grad, the minister of the treasury.
“At first, the minister offered to exchange stakes of the banks’ shares which would be a preliminary phase before a possible merger”, “PB” source said.
“Share exchange is more of a propaganda than business but this may be a good start before further moves”, Rafal Juszczak, PKO BP ex-CEO said.
When he headed PKO BP, the bank also held similar talks.
“After parliamentary elections in fall 2007, we suspended the talks”, Rafal
Juszczak added.