Warsaw (Puls Biznesu) – The Austrian insurer is going to buy more shares of the Polish company.
Cigna STU, Poland’s sixth largest non-life insurance company, has several shareholders. The Austrian Wiener Städtische has been the majority one since March when it bought 63.1 percent from Aleksander and Tomasz Gudzowaty and PHZ Bartimpex company. Meanwhile, the Austrians negotiated with the other shareholders. This month, EuRoPol Gaz and Gas Trading which have jointly 29.7 percent may sell their stakes as well.
“I can only say that there are negotiations going on”, Danuta Tarkowska responsible for media contacts in EuRoPol Gaz said.
“Talks are going on. I don’t know when we manage to conclude the talks. We would like to do it quickly but we have to care about the company”, Krzysztof Laskowski, Gas Trading CEO said.
Wiener Städtische has the permission to have over 50 percent of votes during the GSM of Cigna STU. It has also the permission from Poland’s monopoly authorities UOKiK to buy the shares. A new issue worth PLN 50m (EUR 13.1m) will be possible then. Cigna STU needs fresh capital because the company develops fast. In the last three quarters it raised PLN 343.8m of gross premium, or 30.7 percent more than a year earlier. In the first nine months of this year, it had PLN 14.4m of net income, or 79.2 percent more than a year ago. The income is supposed to exceed PLN 20m this year.
(PLN 1 = EUR 0.262)