Dutch bank ING moves towards Bank Slaski merger

Dutch ING financial group (ING) has purchased a 14.7% stake in Bank Slaski (BS) in a public tender, thus increasing its holding in the bank to 69.7% and securing a merger of its subsidiary ING Warsaw with BS. The strategic success of the Dutch financial group looks likely to diminish the already small chances of BS minority shareholders, the Commercial Union open pension fund, the Emerging Markets Growth Fund, and Templeton, of placing their own representative on the bank' s supervisory board for a longer time and preventing the ING Polish branch' s merger with BS. The new situation has forced the minority opposition, which together holds 16.4% in BS, to come to an agreement with the strategic investor. Later yesterday ING announced that the plan to merge its wholly-owned subsidiary ING Warsaw with Bank Slaski was now on track after the BS minority shareholders had approved the move. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p.33; Rzeczpospolita, p.B7; Reuters) J.K.