Last month, GE announced plans to divest its 90% holding in Bank BPH in a bid to shift away from finance and towards industry, Reuters reported.
Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) chairman Andrzej Jakubiak said potential buyers should hold a debt rating at least equal to that of GE, which is fixed at AA+ by Standard & Poor’s.
Even though the rating is much higher than Poland’s A- sovereign rating, KNF deputy chairman Wojciech Kwasniak insisted that the bar had been set too high.
In an interview with the news agency, Kwasniak said KNF is unlikely to authorize any bank already operating in Poland to acquire Bank BPH due to its structural risks tied to its relatively large foreign currency loan portfolio.
"We have always said that from the point of view of banking supervision … it is extremely important in conditions of unstable financial markets, and this is still the case, not to swap better investors for inferior ones."
GE is reportedly yet to fulfil all the commitments it made to the KNF with respect to Bank BPH.
Kwasniak said: "As a result we are referring to an uncertain state, where there is no decision (from GE) regarding the final plan."
Meanwhile, Moody’s has downgraded Bank BPH’s long-term deposit rating and announced that it could be cut further following GE’s announcement.
Claimed to be Poland’s tenth largest bank by assets, Bank BPH employs about 10,000 people, and has a market capitalization of $961m.
Image: Polish Financial Supervision Authority has demanded that all potential buyers for Bank BPH should meet rigorous credit rating standards. Photo: Btnmdt.
