Shareholders vote on AmerBank share issue to DZ Bank

This afternoon the shareholders of AmerBank are to decide on the purchase of 33.3 million newly issued shares by AmerBank's strategic investor, German-based DZ Bank. AmerBank needs the money for company restructuring and to deal with bad debts which amount to half of the bank's portfolio. The shares will be issued at a value of zl. 3 each, amounting to a zl. 123 million increase in internal funds. However, at the bank's current stock exchange value of zl. 16.20 per share, the bank's internal funds would increase to zl. 534.6 million. According to AmerBank president Slawomir Sikora, other shareholders, including PGNiG (which has an 11.98% stake in AmerBank), Osterreichische Volksbanken AG (9.5%) and Frederick T Field (2.63%), will not participate in the share issue because none of them agreed to provide guarantees to cover credit risk. DZ Bank has already given several such guarantees, and if shareholders vote to raise the necessary capital DZ Bank will prolong its guarantee, which currently expires in June 2002. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B6) P.W.