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PKO BP SABlik mobile payments plans foreign expansion; wants to invite banks from CEE to invest
Polish mobile payments system's company Blik wants to pursue foreign expansion. To this end, it is working on an equity strategy and wants to invite banks from the CEE region to invest, the CEO of Poland's largest lender by assets PKO BP Szymon Midera told journalists at the backstage of the European Financial Congress in Sopot.
"Blik's supervisory board has approved a goal for the company to conduct extensive expansion abroad. We see opportunities for Blik abroad in CEE in the next few years to reach similar volumes as in Poland today," PKO BP's CEO Midera said.
"Expansion is needed because market shares in Poland are difficult to increase further in a multi-year horizon. The work on Blik's equity strategy is related to this," he added.
The CEO of Poland's largest lender told journalists that in the next few months, PKO BP and other banks-shareholders of Poland's national payments operator PSP, owner of Blik, would like to invite the largest banking groups in CEE to invest in Blik's equity.
"(...) discussions are still underway whether to set up a separate company for foreign expansion. Nevertheless, we believe that the presence of these banks in Blik's shareholding, or the company responsible for foreign expansion, is an important element in convincing them to implement Blik in their systems so that they can benefit from the increase in value of the company, which is already very profitable and has unicorn status," Midera added.
According to the CEO, additionally, such a transaction will strengthen Blik's capital and help finance costs related to expansion, marketing and promoting the solution in new markets.
seb/ ao/ nl/