BRE Bank allowed to increase stake in Elektrim

The Securities and Stock Exchange Commission (KPWiG) said on Tuesday that it had granted permission for BRE Bank to raise its holding in ailing conglomerate Elektrim to over 33%. BRE, leading a "concert party" of investors, amassed a 21.6% stake last year in a bid for control of Elektrim's prime asset, a 49% stake in a joint venture with Vivendi which controls top mobile phone firm PTC. But the venture failed and Elektrim's share price collapsed as it spent much of 2002 flirting with bankruptcy, leaving BRE, half owned by Germany's Commerzbank, nursing heavy paper losses. The Elektrim debacle and other ill-fated equity plays have forced BRE to warn that it would post its first full-year loss in a decade as a listed company for 2002. (Reuters) A.Z.