Amerbank minority investors outraged at DZ share purchase offer

Minority investors are outraged that in its public bid for Amerbank shares, Germany' s DZ Bank is offering zl. 7.1 for preferred shares, of which there are 803,000, and zl. 21.3 for common shares. "This is the first time in the history of the Warsaw Stock Exchange that a strategic investor is offering less money for preferred shares, each of which carries five votes," said Marek Swieton, analyst with ING IM. DZ Bank recently succeeded in securing a 50% stake in Amerbank and therefore was required to call a public bid for the outstanding shares. The law on trading securities states that the price of such a bid should not be lower than the average listed during the last 6 months before the bid was called. However, this does not concern preferred shares, because they are not listed. "The minority shareholders were not treated fairly. I believe they have a chance of winning in court," said DM BIG BG analyst Marcin Materna. (Puls Biznesu, p. 7) T.J.