Insurer PZU on lookout for banks?

According to the Puls Biznesu daily, the bank could be created through the consolidation of two existing lenders on the Polish market – Alior Bank and Raiffeisen Polbank. It is thought that Bank BPH may also be in PZU’s scope of interest.

The newspaper writes that state-controlled PZU is after a 25 percent stake in Alior Bank which has been put up for sale by Carlo Tassara, a holding company controlled by Romain Zaleski, a Polish-French financier.

If PZU manages to take hold of the 25-percent stake, it would add to the already controlled 4.5 percent in the bank’s investment and pension fund. The daily additionally reports that PZU is also on “good terms” with Alior management, which controls a further 10 percent.

“PZU is undertaking due diligence on Alior,” an anonymous source told the daily.

While Alior is not Poland’s most cash-heavy bank with PLN 30.1 billion in assets, it has 2.5 million clients and over 1,000 branches nationwide following its purchase of a majority stake in Meritum Bank.

Further to the Alior deal, PZU is also looking at Raiffeisen Polbank, which is set to be sold by its owners Raiffeisen Bank International. Currently, the bank has the largest assets on the Polish market, set at PLN 53.5 billion.

Bank BPH, which may be sold off by parent company GE Money Capital, is also in PZU’s sights. The bank has PLN 31.6 billion in assets.

“PZU is ready to take part in acquisitions also in the banking sector, guaranteeing their financing,” PZU spokesman Michał Witkowski told the daily, adding that “a key condition is that the final transaction would create value for our company’s shareholders,” PZU spokesman Michał Witkowski told Puls Biznesu. (jb)