PKO's future is uncertain

摘要

Powszechna Kasa Oszczednosci Bank Polski (PKO BP), the last of Poland's big state-owned banks, has some lingering image problems. Excluded from privatisation in the early 1990s because of its crippling legacy of communist-era housing loans and put off-limits to foreign strategic investors to preserve its Polish identity, PKO is still seen as an old-fashioned, unwieldy and heavily politicised former monopolist. Yet these are perceptions that it is keen to rebut as it prepares to go public at the end of this year in what is expected to be one of east Europe's largest stock market flotations. On March 22, Poland's treasury ministry picked a consortium of Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) and the brokerage arm of Bank Gospodarki Zywnosciowej (BGZ), a local agricultural bank, to advise it on the sale of a 30% stake in PKO on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. This is the fifth attempt to privatise the bank. Previous efforts foundered because of delays in shoring up its capital, a sharp economic slowdown in 2001-02 and a steely determination on the part of politicians to keep the retail giant in local hands. Successive governments eschewed a sale to a strategic investor in favour of a politically palatable stockmarket listing that keeps ownership dispersed and allows the state to retain majority control.