Boardroom brawls at PZU
Eureko last week announced the withdrawal of its four representatives on the management boards of the state-controlled insurers PZU and PZU Życie. The firm said the move was a result of "on-going harassment and intimidation from fellow PZU board members appointed by the Polish Ministry of State Treasury.
"The State Treasury representatives have frustrated all efforts aimed at mutual cooperation," reads a statement from Eureko. The company says that the atmosphere on the management boards has deteriorated since the PiS-led government installed its own representatives - including company president Jaromir Netzel - over the summer.
Netzel called the Eureko move a "scandal," and on Thursday the government hit back, expelling 11 out of 12 Eureko representatives from the supervisory boards of five PZU-owned companies.
"The campaign of falsehood and slander conducted by Eureko is designed to turn the attention of public opinion from the actual neglect and highly probable actions to the detriment of PZU group's companies, which the Eureko-nominated members of the management and supervisory boards carried out," reads a statement from six members of the boards of PZU and PZU Życie, which was written at the recommendation of the State Treasury.
According to Eureko, the government-appointed board members have intimidated Eureko's representatives by submitting or threatening to submit to the prosecutor reports of crimes they have allegedly committed. Eureko says such action has already been taken against one of its representatives, Ineke Banus. According to the company, Deputy Treasury Minister Paweł Szałamacha also sent a request to PZU's supervisory-board chairman for "special oversight" of Eureko representative Joyce Deriga.
The removal of Banus, Deriga, and Eureko's two other management-board members as of November 1, makes the company - a 33-percent shareholder in PZU - powerless to influence the activities of the state-controlled insurance giant.
Eureko has been embroiled in a struggle for control of PZU ever since Poland signed an agreement to sell a controlling stake in the company to the Dutch insurer in 1999. The announcement marks the second time Eureko has withdrawn its management-board representatives.
In August 2005, an international arbitration tribunal found that Poland was obligated to sell a further 21-percent stake in PZU, a verdict which the Polish government challenged. Eureko has proposed a settlement, estimating its damages at zł.6 billion, and says it remains open to negotiations. A parliamentary investigation commission probing the sale of PZU to Eureko said in a report issued about a year ago that the deal was not valid and should be annulled.
