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Santander Bank Polska SASantander BP's acquisition by Erste to have neutral impact on PZU, insurer assesses
Listed insurance group PZU assesses that the acquisition of listed lender Santander Bank Polska by Austrian group Erste will have a neutral impact on the group, PZU's board member Jan Zimowicz told a conference following the publication of group's financial report.
"From our point of view, this transaction will be rather neutral. Today Santander has a joint venture with the Allianz group. One of the shareholders of the Erste group is Wiener Städtische i.e., part of the VIG group," Zimowicz said.
"It can be assumed that if this transaction closes, one partner, one of our competitors, will be replaced by another one of our competitors, so from our point of view it is not very important. I would only add that Santander is today a partner of the PZU group," he added.
Jan Zimowicz reiterated that from the point of view of the impact on the group, the acquisition is assessed neutrally.
At the beginning of May, Erste Group signed an agreement to buy 49 percent stake in Santander Bank Polska and 50 percent in the bank's mutual funds unit, Santander TFI, for a total of EUR 7 billion. Erste expects the acquisition to be finalised by the end of 2025.
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