Minor Slaski shareholders won't give in easily to ING

A group of minority shareholders holding a 20% stake in Bank Slaski will boycott the public bid for their shares by Slaski's majority owner ING, seeking to appoint their own representative to the bank's supervisory board, as well as an independent auditor who would check whether Slaski's management might be acting against their interests. ING, which owns 55% of Slaski, has announced plans to merge its Polish office with Bank Slaski and announced a public bid for Slaski priced at zl.265 per share, too little according to the anti-ING coalition. The Dutch bank called the bid so as to increase its stake in Slaski to at least 80%. Analysts say that ING wants to gain full power in the Polish bank, so that its minority shareholders would have no say on the terms of the upcoming merger, which would allow ING to push through a more favorable share exchange parity. However, it now looks as though the public bid will be unsuccessful, particularly since two investment banks, BRE and Merrill Lynch, recently advised clients not to sell their shares to ING in the bid, warning that Slaski stocks could drop considerably if ING achieved its objective. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p.25) T.J.