A buyer for Bankier?
Shares in business website Bankier.pl surged on news from Czech analysts Wood & Co that publishing giant Agora could be interested in buying it out. It's not yet certain that Agora will be the acquiring party, but Bankier.pl will eventually end up in a media group, according to a company representative.
After Wood & Co announced the results of talks with Agora president Marek Sowa, Bankier.pl's share price rose by more than 12 percent. Wood & Co suggested the price for the site could exceed zł.130 million, which would amount to more than zł.18 per share. That's around 40 percent more than Bankier.pl's stock was worth the day before the announcement, when it stood at zł.13.05.
According to its spokesperson Maciej Klepacki, Bankier.pl is interested in joining a large media group. "It would be impossible for Bankier.pl to build a significant media group on its own, but in the future [it will be part of one]," he said. He added that the firm would join a large media group sooner or later, even if it were bought by an investment fund now.
Klepacki explained, however, "It is difficult to say which one of the media groups, Agora or another - or even an investment fund - will buy Bankier.pl. For a long time we have known that Agora was interested in the purchase, but the final decision belongs to shareholders."
In Agora's case, this could be a difficult decision since its shareholder structure is quite fragmented. "Some 44 percent [of its stock] belongs to hundreds or thousands of minority shareholders" Klepacki told WBJ. MCI Group and BZ WBK AIB Asset Management are the largest investors, with around 20 percent of shares each.
Agora did not wish to comment on the news, but the firm's spokesperson, Urszula Strych, told Bloomberg news agency that the company was interested in purchasing an unnamed financial portal.
Bankier.pl will soon choose an advisory company to coordinate its sale and an announcement to this effect will be made at the beginning of May. "All details will be known then," said Klepacki.
