Merger muddle

Poland has appealed against the European Commission's decision to approve the merger of Unicredit and HVB, which in Poland would trigger the tie-up of Pekao and BPH, the second- and third-largest lenders respectively. According to the Treasury Ministry, the merger would be a threat to competition in Poland and would cause a breach of a 1999 agreement on selling Pekao to Unicredito (the forerunner of Unicredit).

The Ministry also threatened that that if Unicredit did not sell BPH by the end of April, it would take steps to re-nationalize Pekao. Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz announced he was certain the conflict would end in compromise, but didn't propose any concessions on Poland's side.

"This may mean that the Italian bank will understand that its actions infringe on the previous agreement and wants to honorably retreat from this plan," the Prime Minister said. "But it could also mean finding some compromise which would fulfill the previous agreement  and give the bank satisfaction from completing the merger."

Earlier last week, Deputy Treasury Minister Paweł Szałamacha said Poland was 100-percent right in the merger conflict, and the candidate for the new head of the Treasury Ministry, Wojciech Jasiński, who PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński confirmed should get the post within days, is also a strong opponent of the deal. He said Unicredit is behaving "wildly" and treating Poland "like a colony." (Reuters)