Management of PKO BP plans to buy back the stake at PKO TFI, the asset management unit of Poland’s biggest retail bank.
“It would be best for PKO BP to found its own asset management company. A group of this size should have one”, Grzegorz Raupuk, Analizy Online analyst believed.
The problem is that it may be very risky to experiment with a unit managing PLN 16 billion (EUR 4.2bn) of assets. Besides, a company controlled by the state may not necessarily be able to offer enough to lure best managers.
The asset management market is only crawling in Poland. If PKO BP gives up outsourcing these operations to the Swiss giant it will have to ask rivals to do it. The management of the bank wants PZU Asset Management to take over this business.
“I neither confirm nor deny it. This kind of news is secret”, Tomasz Brzezinski, PZU spokesman said.
According to unofficial sources, PZU ex-CEO Jaromir Netzel came up with this idea. PKO TFI was supposed to convey asset management to PZU AM in January.
The news should worry PKO TFI clients. This year, Credit Suisse outperforms PZU nearly in all fund categories. To the Swiss company, such a change would be a big loss as PKO TFI is its biggest client in Poland. However, Credit Suisse has recently started to manage assets of SKOK TFI.
“Even without PKO Credit Suisse will be profitable”, a person close to the Swiss company assured.
(PLN 1 = EUR 0.265)