The sale of PTU is anything but straightforward

According to Puls Biznesu, Austrian Wiener Stadtische (WS) has submitted the best offer. The spokesman for Ciech group, however, refused to confirm if this was true, and stated that Ciech has to first fully analyze all the offers. Puls Biznesu  believes that BRE bank is also among the front runners to buy the 45.23% stake. WS owns six Polish insurance companies, three of which operate in the property sector (TU Compensa, TUiR Cigna STU and Benefia TU Majątkowych). They have a 5.2% share of the market, which makes them the sixth biggest player on the market. The acquisition of PTU would make WS a key player on the Polish insurance market. There are some problems for WS to overcome first, the remaining shareholders have the pre-emptive purchase right and even if they might not be interested in buying shares from Ciech, they could delay the transaction. Politics is also involved - Law and Justice politicians want to dismiss the president of Ciech, which would also slow down the acquisition process. (Puls Biznesu, pp.1, 4) J.L.