Bank Gdanski to go by installments
Individual investors will be able to buy up to 1,000 shares at 60% of the share price in the first instance and then pay the balance within 90 days without interest. Tax breaks, with up to zl. 2,200 ($916) deducted from personal income tax, will also be available to domestic investors who buy shares in the bank.
Under preliminary plans for the sale, 33% of the bank's shares would be offered internationally, possibly through a Global Depository Receipt (GDR) issue, but this is still pending a decision by the Securities Commission. Another 33% would be floated on the Warsaw Stock Exchange and 4% would be sold to employees. The government will keep a 30% stake in the bank.
It's a different approach to selling a bank, which, many speculate, could be unsuccessful because of the high market capitalization of banks already listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
The bank's advisers are marketing the installment and tax break option, because "we thought it would be an attractive incentive," said Daniel Weisslinger, senior manager of the Central & East European Department at Daiwa Europe Limited, part of a consortium lead by HSBC Investment Bank that is advising and underwriting the issue.
An international issue should encourage investors who have never invested in Poland, Weisslinger said. Flexibility for investors followed by international road shows and a marketing campaign should stimulate investor demand, he said.
Selling shares through installment and international placement shows that the Finance Ministry is checking out new routes to bank privatization, said Miroslaw Andrysiak, analyst at PKO BP brokerage house. Bank Gdanski, like five other regional banks that could be privatized by the end of next year, is not particularly interesting to strategic investors, because it is a local bank without a large branch network, he said.
The ministry could have decided on the sale by installment because of the Bank Przemyslowo-Handlowy (BPH) offering earlier this year. Forty percent of BPH's issue was taken up by underwriters, said Michal Szczurek, investment adviser at BGZ brokerage house. Paying by installment could encourage investor interest but "not larger than BPH." Hubert Janieszewski, director of HSBC in Warsaw, commented that investor interest would be "sufficient for placement."
Under preliminary plans for the sale, 33% of the bank's shares would be offered internationally, possibly through a Global Depository Receipt (GDR) issue, but this is still pending a decision by the Securities Commission. Another 33% would be floated on the Warsaw Stock Exchange and 4% would be sold to employees. The government will keep a 30% stake in the bank.
It's a different approach to selling a bank, which, many speculate, could be unsuccessful because of the high market capitalization of banks already listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
The bank's advisers are marketing the installment and tax break option, because "we thought it would be an attractive incentive," said Daniel Weisslinger, senior manager of the Central & East European Department at Daiwa Europe Limited, part of a consortium lead by HSBC Investment Bank that is advising and underwriting the issue.
An international issue should encourage investors who have never invested in Poland, Weisslinger said. Flexibility for investors followed by international road shows and a marketing campaign should stimulate investor demand, he said.
Selling shares through installment and international placement shows that the Finance Ministry is checking out new routes to bank privatization, said Miroslaw Andrysiak, analyst at PKO BP brokerage house. Bank Gdanski, like five other regional banks that could be privatized by the end of next year, is not particularly interesting to strategic investors, because it is a local bank without a large branch network, he said.
The ministry could have decided on the sale by installment because of the Bank Przemyslowo-Handlowy (BPH) offering earlier this year. Forty percent of BPH's issue was taken up by underwriters, said Michal Szczurek, investment adviser at BGZ brokerage house. Paying by installment could encourage investor interest but "not larger than BPH." Hubert Janieszewski, director of HSBC in Warsaw, commented that investor interest would be "sufficient for placement."
