Treasury loses court battle to block Eureko's voting rights

The Warsaw district court rejected on Tuesday a motion by the State Treasury to ban pan-European insurer Eureko from exercising its voting rights in Powszechny Zaklad Ubezpieczen (PZU), marking yet another lost battle in the Treasury Ministry's fight with Eureko. Three weeks ago the Treasury filed a lawsuit to annul the privatization deal, based on which the Eureko-BIG BG consortium acquired a 30% stake in PZU, Poland's largest insurer. The Ministry then asked the court to secure this lawsuit before it is settled, by banning Eureko from exercising its voting rights. The court's decision means that until the issue is finally settled, Eureko and BIG-BG will be able to prevent the Treasury from making any changes in the bylaws and management of PZU. In related news, Eureko yesterday was transformed from an alliance of eight European insurance companies into a single partnership. Eureko president Joao Talone said that in the future he would like PZU to also become one of the shareholders in the partnership. Talone said that Eureko and the Treasury would eventually come to an agreement, as there is simply no other alternative. (Parkiet, p.8, Rzeczpospolita, p.B5, Reuters)