News Parkiet

Banking

BOŚ surges ahead of SEB takeover bid

Shares of Bank Ochrony Środowiska, a mid-sized Polish lender that specializes in financing ecological projects, rose as much as 25 percent in the days leading up to yesterday's announcement that Sweden's SEB plans to make a bid for all outstanding shares of Warsaw-based company it doesn't already own. SEC said it would pay as much as 73 zloty a share representing a 35 percent premium over BOŚ three-month average price on the Warsaw bourse. Polish SEC said it would investigate the situation, adding that it would 'take appropriate action if it finds any irregularities'.

Banking

Bank Austria seeks guarantees it won't lose CEE units

Bank Austria Creditanstaldt said in a statement yesterday it has asked for guarantees from UniCredito Italiano it won't lose control over Poland's Bank BPH, its biggest asset in Central Europe outside its home market. It also told investors they are tendering their shares to UniCredito in a stock-swap 'at their own risk'. Polish authorities are seeking a transfer of HVB Group's Central European headquarters to Warsaw in return for regulatory clearance of the merger between BPH and UniCredito, local units of Bank Austria and UniCredito respectively.

Retailing

Private equity fund sells LPP stake

for a triple-digit gain

Private equity fund Enterprise Investors, which manages assets of Calpers and other US retirement funds and insurance companies sold its stake in Polish clothing retailer LPP, posting a 350 percent gain on its two-year investment.

Enterprise Investors, a regional CEE fund operating from Warsaw, sold 215 000 shares of LPP at 910 zloty a share ($288) to a group of local pension funds for total of 62 million dollars. It originally paid 235 zloty a share for most of its 12.6 percent stake in LPP, a fast-growing apparel company better known in Poland for its 'Reserved' and 'Cropp Town' casual clothing brands.

Shares of LPP rose by a whopping 1900 percent since the company's IPO in mid-2001.