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Central Europe
April 13, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 14
Orban played successfully on the fears of Hungarians, especially those in rural areas, where people have few if any contacts with foreigners.
State-owned media, a mouthpiece for the government, ran stories of crimes committed by Muslims, and pointed to the situation in Western European countries, where a large number of Muslim immigrants live. Government propaganda
RBI offloads Polish business to BNP Paribas
bne IntelliNews
Austrian banking group Raiffeisen Bank Interna- tional (RBI) has sold its Polish business Raiffeisen Polbank to French bank BNP Paribas for €775mn or 0.95% of the book value, RBI said on April 10.
The deal will bulk up BNP Paribas’ business
in Poland to the sixth largest on the competitive Polish market with nearly PLN113bn (€27bn)
in assets. For RBI, it is a long-awaited exit from a difficult market.
“This transaction will strengthen our position amongst the largest banks in Poland bringing us much closer to the top five. We are glad to become an active participant in the consolidation of the Polish banking sector,” Przemek Gdanski, CEO
of BNP Paribas in Poland, said in a statement.
Meanwhile, RBI CEO Johann Strobl commented that “This transaction represents a significant step towards optimising our group. By gaining capital, we create additional scope for strengthen- ing our market position in relevant markets.”
BNP Paribas is not acquiring RBI’s entire portfo- lio in Poland. The takeover will cover Raiffeisen
said opposition parties would open up empty barracks and vacant homes to house migrants.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation
in Europe (OSCE) said on April 9 that Hungary’s electoral process and the ruling parties’ excessive resources undermined contestants’ ability to compete on an equal basis in the election.
Polbank’s corporate, retail, and private bank-
ing business without problematic items such as mortgages denominated in the Swiss franc or the portfolio of wind power that it had financed.
The deal has been long in the making as the en- vironment of low-interest rates and exposure to Swiss franc-denominated mortgages put RBI at a disadvantageous position to sell. The half
a million or so mortgages in the Swiss currency became a risk after the zloty weakened against the franc in 2015 causing mortgage repayments to shoot up.
Poland has long hinted at reducing the banking system’s exposure to these loans, which in itself created uncertainty on the market and made the transaction difficult.
The Austrian bank concurrently tried listing 15% of the Raiffeisen Polbank's shares on the Warsaw Stock Exchange but that also proved a hard sell with potential investors.
The deal is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2018, subject to regulatory approvals.