Less than a month after Raiffeisen’s acquisition of a 70% stake in
Polbank, its Austrian-based rival Erste has announced that it
is targeting growth in Poland.
Erste would be following its domestic rival and Spain-based
Santander into Poland, who have acquired controlling stakes in
Polbank and Zachodni respectively.
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Erste said that it is also keen to expand in Hungary as well as
in Serbia.
An Erste spokesperson told RBI that
the bank had no specific plans yet, but added:
“We are monitoring the situation in Poland.
Overall, we are interested in the CEE region and we will take a
very close look at everything that is going on in the market,” he
added.
“As a retail bank, our goal is to acquire a market share of at
least 20 per cent in each market. This is currently not the status
quo in Hungary and Serbia. In the two countries acquisitions would
be reasonable, but only if the target bank has more deposits than
credit, so as to match our business model. There is no such bank on
the market right now,” the spokesperson said.
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By GlobalDataErste has no retail banking network in Poland,
the region’s largest economy. It currently operates a securities
business in Poland.
