Warsaw (Puls Biznesu) – The agreement signed between the government and Italian Unicredit does not say precisely what will happen with minority shareholders of Bank BPH who control 21 percent of the bank.
The agreement guarantees that Bank BPH will be independent in Poland.
“I’d like to stress that there will be no merger of Pekao and Bank BPH”, Wojciech Jasinski, the Minister of the Treasure said.
According to the agreement, Bank BPH will consist of 200 outlets which will be able to deliver the same products as today. They will have the infrastructure, IT systems, back office, etc. necessary to run operations. The part of the bank will have the right to use BPH brand.
“This means that Bank BPH headquarters are left along with the chosen outlets”, Marcin Materna, Millennium brokerage analyst said.
Unicredit is to choose the 200 outlets out of offices of Pekao and Bank BPH. The Italians have 30 months to do this. Till March 31 2008, they will not cut employment in any of the banks. According to unofficial sources, Unicredit will have to sell one investment fund and the stake in one pension fund.
“Pekao will now try to win Bank BPH’s best clients and outlets”, Adam Rucinski, the CEO of the lawyer’s office Rucinski i Wspolnicy said.
He added that until the agreement is published, there are many questions.
“What will Pekao acquire and what will be the conditions of this transaction. Who will stand behind Bank BPH? And the most important: what will happen to small shareholders? The clients will have a chance to stay with Bank BPH or to leave to Pekao. What will the minority investors of Bank BPH be offered?”, he asked.
Minority investors control 21 percent of the bank.