UOKiK will let the Union decide
Law and Justice (PiS), which is expected to join a center-right coalition government after September's parliamentary elections, recently demanded that Polish regulators stop the merger of banks Pekao SA and BPH - the second and third largest banks in Poland - arguing that it would lead to less competition and a spate of layoffs. However, Cezary Banasiński, the president of UOKiK, Poland's merger regulatory body, has said that his office won't get involved in the matter.
Since the fusion comes as part of a larger merger between Germany's HVB (BPH's parent company) and Italy's UniCredito (which controls Pekao), the action will be reviewed by European Union regulators, and Banasiński sees no basis for a separate Polish ruling.
"We would have to demonstrate first that the Polish market is different from the common one, and secondly that the planned merger would significantly limit competition, which, given both banks' [combined] market share of around 25 percent, is hard to prove," he told Gazeta Wyborcza.
Polish competition law sets the threshold for a dominating position at a market share of at least 40 percent.
Expected to last throughout 2006-7, the merger would be the biggest-ever in the Polish market, and would create Eastern Europe's largest bank by assets, which combined amounts to zł.113 billion. Their combined workforce equals around 26,000 employees. (Reuters)
Since the fusion comes as part of a larger merger between Germany's HVB (BPH's parent company) and Italy's UniCredito (which controls Pekao), the action will be reviewed by European Union regulators, and Banasiński sees no basis for a separate Polish ruling.
"We would have to demonstrate first that the Polish market is different from the common one, and secondly that the planned merger would significantly limit competition, which, given both banks' [combined] market share of around 25 percent, is hard to prove," he told Gazeta Wyborcza.
Polish competition law sets the threshold for a dominating position at a market share of at least 40 percent.
Expected to last throughout 2006-7, the merger would be the biggest-ever in the Polish market, and would create Eastern Europe's largest bank by assets, which combined amounts to zł.113 billion. Their combined workforce equals around 26,000 employees. (Reuters)
