Changes expected to the management board of BGZ

During a meeting today, the supervisory board of Bank Gospodarki Zywnosciowej (BGZ) may decide to change the members of the management board, including its president, Michal Machlejd. According to unofficial sources, he might be replaced by either former deputy finance minister Jacek Bartkiewicz, BOS president Jozef Koziol or Jerzy Pietrewicz, the head of the National Environmental Protection Fund (FOSiGW). According to Gazeta Wyborcza, Machlejd will be replaced due to the fact that his position has steadily weakened since the last parliamentary elections. BGZ has been facing serious financial troubles for some time. At the end of 2001 the Banking Supervisory Commission (KNB) obliged its shareholders to increase the bank's capital by zl. 600 million, as the ratio of its assets to its own capital was too high. This forced the State Treasury, the bank's main shareholder, to transfer shares of some companies to BGZ. According to analysts, this will not improve the bank's situation over the long-term despite the fact that, in accordance with its strategy, it will be introduced onto the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) in the coming years. It is hard to imagine, however, that the State Treasury will allow a large financial institution to enter BGZ and take control of it. Experience shows that all companies controlled by the State are highly likely to be politically affected. (Prawo i Gospodarka, pp. 1, 6) M.M.