By Patryk Wasilewski
WARSAW--Poland's state-controlled insurer PZU SA has bought a
minority stake in a medium-sized local bank as part of its mission
to build a large lender and reduce the role eurozone investors play
in the Polish banking sector.
The insurer has agreed to buy 25% in Alior Bank SA (ALR.WA) from
Italy's Carlo Tassara for 1.6 billion zlotys ($427 million) with
its chief executive, Andrzej Klesyk, already setting his sights on
two more banks in a move aimed at creating a lender capable of
challenging the country's biggest market players.
The plan has the blessing of the Polish government which is
determined to increase the share of domestically-owned banks at a
politically sensitive time, as general elections are due in the
autumn.
"After years of importing capital and know-how from foreign
banks it's time for 'repolonization' of the financial sector, which
means using Polish capital in its consolidation," Treasury Minister
Wlodzimierz Karpinski said after the transaction was announced.
In a weekend interview for Rzeczpospolita daily, Mr. Klesyk, the
PZU CEO, said creating a big Polish bank "would be good for the
country," although he remains focused on shareholder value. He said
the company's ultimate share he hopes to build in the bank through
acquisitions will be higher than 25%.
Poland has for years sought to reduce the share of its domestic
banking sector held by foreign lenders amid concerns that the debt
problems of some eurozone members could affect local lending and
banking operations.
The plan, originally conceived by the conservative opposition
party Law and Justice, has the central bank's backing. National
Bank of Poland Governor, Marek Belka, has said the central bank is
ready to assist any transaction that would bring commercial banks
with troubled parents back into Poland's fold. Poland has a
relatively high share of its banking sector in foreign hands after
asset sales made at an early stage of its transition to a market
economy after 1989.
The renewed issue of Polish capital playing a bigger role in
Poland follows the victorious campaign of presidential challenger
Andrzej Duda in the May election. Opinion polls show his Law and
Justice party could win the parliamentary ballot due around
October.
So far, efforts by Polish investors--who hold about 60% of local
banking sector assets--to gain more control have had limited
success with only the state-controlled bank PKO Bank Polski SA
managing to buy the Polish unit of Nordea Bank AB (NDA.SK) in
2013.
That could change, with PZU boasting earlier this month that it
can spend heavily on investments and pick and choose its targets
because many Polish banks are for sale.
Facing its own financial pressures, Raiffeisen Bank
International AG (RBI.VI) is looking for suitors for its local
lender Raiffeisen Polbank. Meanwhile, General Electric Co.'s (GE)
financial arm GE Money is looking to sell Bank BPH after it failed
to meet the desired scale of operations.
Although PZU faces competition from foreign lenders, it has a
higher chance of getting regulatory backing because the financial
oversight authority is skeptical about foreign banks increasing
their market share.
The financial sector regulator has said it sees Poland's
relatively fragmented banking market as appropriate and any buyers
would have to be newcomers.
-Write to Patryk Wasilewski at patryk.wasilewski@wsj.com
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