Chinese Fosun International interested in Polish unit of Raiffeisen

Chinese investment fund Fosun International is interested in buying the Polish unit of Austrian lender Raiffeisen, two banking sources familiar with the matter said. The Chinese fund will have to fight off competition from another prospective buyer, Poland's biggest insurer PZU which according to banking sources has already submitted an offer for the unit, called Raiffeisen Polbank. "The Chinese are in the game. They had meetings with the management board and also inside the bank. This is the Chinese fund Fosun," a banking source said, on condition of anonymity. Another banking source said: "Fosun is making circles around it, but PZU is the preferred buyer." Both Raiffeisen Polbank, which is Poland's seventh biggest bank by assets, and Fosun declined to comment. Raiffeisen Bank International needs to sell its Polish unit to help shrink its balance sheet and hit a core capital ratio of 12 percent by end-2017.