Fortis Bank pulls out of planned merger with BRE Bank

Belgium's Fortis Bank has decided to pull out from its earlier intention to merge its Polish subsidiary with BRE Bank. The head of Fortis Bank Polska, Jean-Marie De Baerdemaeker, announced that the company had decided not to merge with any Polish institution for the moment. The negotiations, which had been running since the beginning of this year, failed because Fortis did not manage to come to an agreement with BRE Bank's strategic investor, Commerzbank of Germany. According to unofficial information published by Rzeczpospolita, the dispute concerned the question of decision making power following the merger. Jean-Marie De Baerdemaeker said the company is planning to continue its previous strategy of increasing its client base through its existing sales network. The bank will continue to specialize in the medium and large enterprise sector as well as in wealthier individual clients. "The most important consideration for our shareholders is not an increase in market share in Poland, but good revenues," said De Baedemaeker. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B7) A.K