Birth of a banking giant
Italian UniCredito's buyout of the German HVB group for EUR 15 (zł.60.6) billion, which will be Europe's biggest cross-border bank takeover to date, is expected to take place this week. The transaction will create Europe's ninth-largest lender.
Germany's Die Welt newspaper said that HVB's CEO, Dieter Rampl, and UniCredito's head, Alessandro Profumo, had agreed on the structure of the new bank, clearing one of the last hurdles.
For the Polish banking sector it will mean a major reshuffle and the emergence of a financial giant as the merger of the country's second-and third- biggest lenders becomes inevitable.
Bank Pekao SA, which is owned by UniCredito, and BPH, which is part of the HVB group, are going to become one institution with an almost 50 percent market share.
"It is hard to predict how the new Pekao SA/BPH bank is going to function. There will surely be layoffs on the management level but also branches all over Poland will have to be reduced. Past experiences show that it is the stronger party that dictates its terms so the BPH employees have every reason to be worried. However, in the case of the BPH-PBK merger the majority of management staff were totally new people so you never know," said DB analyst, Dariusz Górski.
Before the extraordinary shareholders meeting on Friday, BPH trade unions organized a press conference during which they discussed the threats related to the potential merger and what it would mean for employees.
Germany's Die Welt newspaper said that HVB's CEO, Dieter Rampl, and UniCredito's head, Alessandro Profumo, had agreed on the structure of the new bank, clearing one of the last hurdles.
For the Polish banking sector it will mean a major reshuffle and the emergence of a financial giant as the merger of the country's second-and third- biggest lenders becomes inevitable.
Bank Pekao SA, which is owned by UniCredito, and BPH, which is part of the HVB group, are going to become one institution with an almost 50 percent market share.
"It is hard to predict how the new Pekao SA/BPH bank is going to function. There will surely be layoffs on the management level but also branches all over Poland will have to be reduced. Past experiences show that it is the stronger party that dictates its terms so the BPH employees have every reason to be worried. However, in the case of the BPH-PBK merger the majority of management staff were totally new people so you never know," said DB analyst, Dariusz Górski.
Before the extraordinary shareholders meeting on Friday, BPH trade unions organized a press conference during which they discussed the threats related to the potential merger and what it would mean for employees.
