Troubled BG Leasing owes Polish banks zl. 300 million

BG Leasing, 74% owned by BIG Bank Gdanski, lost zl. 76 million last year and its condition is so bad it has already begun to try and settle with its creditors. Thirty Polish banks have lent zl. 300 million to BG Leasing, certain that BIG BG would guarantee its sound financial standing, but this turned out not to be the case. Some of the banks have already created reserves for money they lent to BG Leasing. Bank Handlowy is reported to be the largest lender with BG Leasing owing it zl. 80 million. BIG BG meanwhile, seems to have predicted the trouble and made an attempt to back out of its unstable subsidiary. In the financial year ending September 1999, BG Leasing owed its parent bank zl. 134 million, but since then the figure dropped to zl. 70 million. At the beginning of April BIG BG acquired from BG Leasing zl. 62.6 million worth of debt. Reportedly, this was mostly BIG BG's own debt. (Gazeta Wyborcza, page 14) T.J.