PZU shareholders clashing over supervisory board head

Today's shareholder meeting of Poland's largest insurer, Powszechny Zaklad Ubezpieczen (PZU) will likely be the scene of a row between the Treasury Ministry and the Eureko insurance group. The Treasury, which holds 70% of PZU, has four seats on the company's supervisory board, as does Eureko together with BIG-Bank Gdanski (BIG BG). In such a situation the head of the board often has the deciding voice, and this is an issue of dispute. Eureko wanted Bohdan Wyznikiewicz appointed to the post, but the Treasury says he is already on the supervisory board of another company in which the state says he has a majority stake, Nafta Polska. Eureko claims he would be ready to resign from Nafta to sit on the PZU board, but the Treasury has given Eureko three days, until today, to choose from the three candidates presented by the Ministry, Slawomir Kaczala, Wojciech Kwiatkowski and Ewa Gregorczyk. Eureko is threatening to take the Ministry to court if it pushes through changes which have not been agreed by shareholders. (Puls Biznesu, page 3) T.J.