By Patryk Wasilewski
WARSAW--Poland's financial regulator, KNF, would prefer a new
market entrant to buy General Electric Co.'s (GE) stake in local
lender Bank BPH SA (BPH.WA) to maintain the banking market's
current concentration, KNF head Andrzej Jakubiak was reported as
saying by state news agency PAP.
Mr. Jakubiak added the new entrant would have to agree to the
same constraints as GE on keeping BPH publicly listed in Warsaw and
maintaining a sufficient free float.
"I can repeat that (banking) market concentration is near
optimum. That means they should look for an investor outside of
Poland, an entity that is not yet present here," Mr. Jakubiak
said.
Bank BPH said Wednesday that majority shareholder General
Electric "is analyzing strategic possibilities of selling the
bank's shares," and has hired investment banks to advise on the
process.
Based on its closing share price Wednesday, BPH's market
capitalization was 3.16 billion zlotys ($953 million). General
Electric holds an 89% stake in the lender.
Poland's banking sector has been consolidating in recent years,
with bigger banks strengthening their market position as smaller
rivals struggle to achieve the scale necessary to operate in a
highly competitive market.
The financial regulator first said it saw the banking market as
sufficiently concentrated in June 2013, following a series of
transactions in which Spain's Banco Santander AS (SAN.MC) acquired
two local banks and rose to the No. 3 market position, and the
country's biggest lender by assets, PKO BP Powszechna Kasa
Oszczednosci Bank Polski SA (PKO.WA), took over Scandinavian Nordea
Bank AB's (NDA.SK) local unit.
Despite the regulator's position, many market watchers view the
country's banking sector as being very fragmented still, with PKO
BP controlling only 16.2% of all the market's assets and many banks
having close to a 2% market share.
Write to Patryk Wasilewski at patryk.wasilewski@wsj.com
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