Pekao CEO expects key details on PZU share exchange by Q2 2026
07/08/2025 14:53
GDANSK, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Polish lender Pekao PEO.WA expects the terms of a share exchange to enable its planned $27 billion merger with Polish state-controlled insurer PZU PZU.WA to be finalized by the start of the second quarter of 2026, its CEO said on Thursday. "I expect it to be around the end of the first quarter, maybe the beginning of the second quarter of next year," Pekao CEO Cezary Stypulkowski said on Thursday. In June, Polish state-controlled insurer PZU PZU.WA and lender Pekao said that they plan to merge in a potential deal that would create a financial group with a combined market value of more than 100 billion zlotys. The potential tie-up, which would rank as the biggest financial M&A transaction in Europe for at least 12 months according to LSEG data, is another high profile deal recently announced in Poland, where expectations for consolidation in the banking sector have grown. Poland's finance ministry on Thursday submitted for consultation a draft amendment to several laws, including the Banking Law, which would, if passed, enable the deal to go through. "A domestic bank may merge only with another bank or a credit institution, or, as the acquiring company, with a joint-stock company that is not a bank but belongs to the same group as the domestic bank, upon obtaining permission from the Financial Supervision Authority," according to the document published on Government Legislation Centre website. In July Poland' Prime Minister's Chancellery said that the government plans to designate Pekao as a strategic company whose shares held by the State Treasury cannot be sold. (Reporting by Adrianna Ebert and Anna Jaworska-Guidotti; Editing by Matt Scuffham) ((Adrianna.Ebert@thomsonreuters.com; +48 58 769 65 88;))