ING Bank makes a public offer to increase its stake in BSK bank to 100%
The Dutch ING Bank NV called a public tender offer to boost its current 54.1% stake in Polish Bank Slaski (BSK) to 100%. The bank offered PLN 265 (USD 66.60) per share, which represented a 16.2% premium over BSK's closing share price on Wednesday and 18.6% over the average price during the past six months. The subscription period was set at March 19 - Apr 23. The Dutch group said it did not plan to delist BSK from the Warsaw Stock Exchange and added it would reduce its holding in the Polish bank to 75% after two years. Analysts praised ING's move, pointing that Poland still has relatively low banking penetration. ING said it would like to reach 5-15% of the market in 2003. On Wednesday ING received the permission of the Banking Supervision Commission to increase its stake in Bank Slaski above 75%. Speculations about the possible tender pushed BSK stock down by 5.6% yesterday and trade was suspended. The tender is connected with the Dutch bank's plans to merge its Warsaw arm and BSK this year, but the merger is still to be approved by shareholders. It is expected that plans may be blocked by some shareholders, disappointed with BSK's poor profits. Last year the bank netted PLN 138.1mn (USD 34.8mn), 31% down from 1999. However, ING predicted that this year BSK would improve its profits to PLN 370mn (USD 93.4mn). kp
Źródło:IntelliNews Daily
