Minority shareholders win seat on Orbis supervisory board

Minority shareholders in Poland's biggest hotel operator, Orbis, have won a significant victory by gaining a seat on the company's supervisory board. "Their own representative will allow minority shareholders to have some control at the time of the merger between Orbis and the Polish subsidiary of Accor. One of the issues may especially be the share exchange ratio," said Michal Marczak, analyst at BRE Bank brokerage. The new board member put forward by the financial institutions, among them foreign institutional investors, who together own 20% of Orbis is Michael Harvey, who previously worked at several western investment banks. Commenting on Harvey's appointment, president of Orbis, Maciej Grelowski, said he could count on the new board member's professionalism. Grelowski went on, "I regret that for months we have been bombarded with accusations of discord. I hope that the new board will succeed in creating a new strategy." In recent months Accor, which is the strategic investor in Orbis, has clashed with the company's institutional shareholders, who fear that the planned merger between the Orbis hotel network and the 13 existing Accor hotels in Poland and seven under construction, would dilute their stake in the company. The vote on the merger is scheduled for the first half of next year. (Puls Biznesu, p.6; Rzeczpospolita, p. B4; Reuters) P.J.