Monday, June 1, 2015

PZU CEO says would like to buy more banks this year - Polish paper

<span id="midArticle_start"/> Central and eastern Europe's top insurerPZU would like to buy two more banks this year andmerge them with Alior Bank to gain cost synergies, its chiefexecutive told a Polish daily.

<span id="midArticle_0"/>Andrzej Klesyk told the Rzeczpospolita daily that PZU wouldlike to complete the process of merging the banks it plans tobuy within the next 2-3 years.

<span id="midArticle_1"/>"The more banks we buy, the higher the savings and thehigher the returns for our shareholders," Klesyk said. "My dreamwould be to buy two more banks apart from Alior."

<span id="midArticle_2"/>The state-controlled PZU said over the weekend it would buya 25 percent stake in mid-tier Polish lender Alior Bank, adding it was in talks on more buys as part of a planto build a top-five banking group.

<span id="midArticle_3"/> <span class="first-article-divide"/>Asked if he plans to buy Raiffeisen Polbank and GE's BANK BPH, two Polish banks officially up for sale, Klesyk saidhe did not want to speculate as some are listed. Klesyk said hewas also thinking about a smaller bank whose owner may considerselling it.

<span id="midArticle_4"/> <span class="second-article-divide"/>"If we are speaking about these two, three banks which wewant to buy, either we do it now, or someone else buys them."

<span id="midArticle_5"/>He added that PZU may issue subordinated bonds denominatedin euro to finance the acquisitions.

<span id="midArticle_6"/> <span class="third-article-divide"/>Asked about political pressure on PZU to buy assets ofstruggling state-owned miner Kompania Weglowa, Klesyk said theinsurer was interested in any transaction that would yield ahigh return to its shareholders and would be properly secured.

<span id="midArticle_7"/>"However, we will not invest in a project that has nochances to succeed," he said. (Reporting by Marcin Goettig; Editing by Prateek Chatterjee)

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