News Parkiet

Banking

Kostrzewa quits BRE Bank

BRE Bank, Poland's fifth largest lender by assets, said Chief Executive Officer Wojciech Kostrzewa resigned yesterday. Kostrzewa, who served as CEO since 1998, cited the desire to 'take up new professional challenges' for his sudden departure.

He will be replaced by Sławomir Lachowski, the head of BRE's highly successful retail and electronic banking unit. Lachowski, who works for BRE since April 2000, presided over the launch of Poland's no.1 Internet bank, BRE's wholly owned mBank later that year. He also helped start Multibank, which combines Internet access with regular sales channels. mBank and Multibank now have almost 900.000 customers.

Shares of BRE Bank rose 7.11 percent to close at 113 zloty on news of Mr. Kostrzewa's resignation.

Insurance

PZU to buy Ukrainian insurer Skide-West

Powszechny Zakład Ubezpieczeniowy SA is about to close the deal to buy Ukrainian insurance group Skide-West, one of top ten insurers on the local market, sources close to the situation told PARKIET yesterday. PZU started negotiations over its latest investment in Ukraine back in February. It said earlier it plans to spend more than 20 million dollars on the Ukrainian market.

Pulp and paper

Grajewo to build another production plant in Poland

Polish subsidiary of Pfleiderer AG, publicly traded Pfleiderer Grajewo, said on Tuesday it plans to build a new MDF and HDP plywood board factory somewhere in Poland in three years' time. It says it would use cash generated internally and bank loans to complete 100-million euro plant.