PARIS--French bank BNP Paribas SA (BNP.FR) Thursday said it will
buy Bank Gospodarki Zywnosciowej SA (BGZ.WA) from Dutch lender
Rabobank to boost its presence in Poland.
BNP Paribas will buy Rabobank's 98.5% stake in Poland's Bank
BGZ, which is valued at around 4.2 billion Polish zlotys, or 1
billion euros ($1.36 billion) under the deal, the two banks said in
a statement.
"The acquisition of Bank BGZ constitutes a major step toward
attaining a critical size in Poland," Jean-Laurent Bonnafe, chief
executive of BNP said in a statement. "The transaction will
establish the BNP Paribas group as a reference player in Poland's
banking sector."
BNP said it expects the deal to have a negative impact of around
15 basis points on the group's Basel III common equity tier 1
ratio, a core measure of a bank's financial strength.
However the transaction will have an immediate accretive effect
on its net income per share, BNP said.
The completion of the deal is subject to regulatory
approvals.
-Write to Ruth Bender at ruth.bender@wsj.com
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