BRE to takeover Fortis Bank this month claim reports

BRE Bank has completed negotiations concerning the takeover of Belgium-based Fortis Bank Polska, according to reports in Rzeczpospolita. The paper's sources claim that Fortis Bank will become a minority shareholder of BRE and that the initial agreement could be concluded within the month. As a result of the deal, Fortis would receive a 15% stake in BRE Bank. BRE's chairman Wojciech Kostrzewa has on many occasions declared that the bank has sufficient assets to finance the takeover of a smaller financial institution. He also stressed that he would like to take part in another aspect of the banking sector's consolidation - the process of foreign investors in Polish institutions becoming dissatisfied with their current market share and deciding to merge banks - a process for which Kostrzewa sees increasing evidence. For BRE, being focused on servicing big corporations, Fortis Bank represents an interesting target, as the Belgian bank concentrates on servicing small and medium companies as well as having a great many individual customers. Taking over Fortis Bank would strengthen the prestige of BRE's management which suffered due to this year's poor financial results and missed capital investments. BRE is the country's fifth bank in terms of assets, while Fortis is in thirteenth position. (Rzeczpospolita, pp. A1, B1) M.T.