According to Polish daily Puls Biznesu, Jan Krzysztof Bielecki, the CEO of Bank Pekao, expects some 5 investors on the short-list for Bank BPH-200. Polish daily Rzeczpospolita has listed KBC Group, Societe General and Raiffeisen International as investors interested in acquisition of Bank BPH assets.
Our view: According to previous press reports, UniCredito has set a deadline of December 13 for the submission of preliminary offers for Bank BPH-200, while the short list should be available before year end. Given the tight timeframe, set by the management, on the spin-off plan (Bank BPH-200 investor is said to be chosen in the first four months of 2007), we expect M&A speculations to intensify in the coming weeks. Therefore, we expect the news to have a neutral impact on the stock price today.