Bank Handlowy merger with Citibank finalized today

Today's General Shareholders' Meeting of Bank Handlowy in Warsaw (BHW) will vote through the decision about BHW's merger with American Citibank. According to analysts, expected profits for BHW from the merger will be higher than if it had concluded a previously planned merger with BRE Bank. The marriage will be executed by exchanging 1,350 new shares of BHW for one share of Citibank Poland, and it will be incorporated by Bank Handlowy. The new entity is threatened with the loss of some corporate clients, who may not decide to use the services of just one bank. Some highly qualified specialists may decide to leave the bank as well. "Together Handlobank [BHW's retail branch, which will cease to exist] and Citibank will have 500,000 customers in Poland and 114 outlets nationwide," said Raymond Lim, management board member of BHW and director of the retail branch. Unification of the computer systems of both entities should be finished before April, 2001. Together the banks employ 5,800 workers and by the end of November a decision should be made about the scale of layoffs. (Puls Biznesu, pp. 1, 10, 11)