Eureko may not pay Treasury zl. 90 mln bonus for PZU

Eureko, which is one of the shareholders of Poland's largest insurance company Powszechny Zaklad Ubezpieczen (PZU) may not pay the bonus of zl. 90.67 million to the Treasury Ministry for the strong financial results of PZU in 1999. "I do not know anything about the clause in the privatization agreement about paying any bonuses," said Eureko spokesperson Lorrie Morgan. The other PZU shareholder, BIG Bank Gdanski (BIG BG), also did not comment on the rumors about the bonus and bank officials said Eureko was responsible for conducting all formal matters. There is a possibility that Eureko will not pay the bonus if it can prove "a negative occurrence" happened in PZU last year. Though the contract does not specify what it means, such occurrence could include a decrease of assets of PZU by zl. 30 million or if Eureko proved that assets were decreased before it acquired a stake in the Polish insurance company and that decrease did not appear in the due diligence report. The financial audit for 1999 has not been signed yet by former PZU president Wladyslaw Jamrozy. In related news, it is still unknown who will become the president of the supervisory board of PZU, but the most serious candidate is the deputy president of the Gdansk Institute for Market Economics (IBnGR) Bohdan Wyznikiewicz. (Prawo i Gospodarka, page 1, 10) M.M.