Credit Agricole acquires majority stake in top leasing firm

The Securities and Stock Exchange Commission (KPWiG) yesterday cleared France's largest retail bank Credit Agricole to acquire more than 50% in Poland's leading leasing firm, Europejski Fundusz Leasingowy (EFL). The French bank had earlier struck a deal with private investor Leszek Czarnecki, owner of more than a 75% stake in EFL, to call a $350 million buyout bid for the leasing firm. Credit Agricole has also received a permit to exceed a 33% threshold in the small insurance firm TU Europa and Internet service provider Getin. The acquisition of the stakes should take place before March 19, 2002. Czarnecki also holds controlling stakes in TU Europa, with a market value of $17 million, and Getin, worth nearly $6 million. (Prawo i Gospodarka, p. 10, Reuters) A.K.