PROJECT

Projects

Summary of Proposed Investment

Project Number

8197

Company Name

Bank Wlasnosci Pracowniczej (BWP)

Date SPI Disclosed

Apr 3, 1998

Country

Poland

Industry

Financial Markets

Status

Completed

Sector

Commercial Banking - General

Department

Regional Industry FIG LAC & EUR

Environmental Category

FI

Previous Events

Approved : May 29, 1998
Signed : Jun 9, 1999
Invested : Jun 11, 1999

Project Description

Summary Of Project Information (SPI)

Project NamePoland - Bank Wlasnosci Pracowniczej S.A. (BWP)
     
RegionEurope
Sector
Project No008197
Projected Board DateMay 5, 1998
Company NameBWP
Technical Partner and/or Major Shareholders

Unibank (Denmark) 26%

IFC 20%

Project Cost Including Proposed IFC Investment

US$15 million; IFC equity US$2 million; IFC Loan US$5 million.

Location of Project and Description of Site

Headquartered in Gdansk, with 6 branches nationwide.

Description of Company and Purpose of Project

The project will support the privatization and expansion of Bank Wlasnosci Pracowniczej (BWP, the Bank), a small regional bank based in Gdansk and indirectly controlled by the state, which has successfully focused on lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMSEs). BWP is also a pioneer in privatizations involving employee buyouts. Notwithstanding its success in these specialty niches, BWP falls short of new Polish minimum capital standards coming into effect by end-1998. In addition, the Bank aims to expand geographically. As part of BWP’s privatization, and in order to support BWP’s management and systems - which could get stretched if BWP expands significantly - IFC has introduced BWP to a potential technical partner, Unibank (UB), a Copenhagen (Denmark) based bank focused on SMSE lending, which will co-invest in BWP alongside IFC. The IFC credit line would be on-lent to SMSE’s     

Environmental Category and Issues

This is an environmental review category FI project. BWP will be required to screen all loan applications for excluded activities. For project finance, BWP will be required to undertake an environmental review of eligible borrower’s environmental performance and each sub-project’s compliance with the Government of Poland environmental, health and safety laws, regulations and standards, as well as applicable World Bank policies and guidelines     

Date SPI sent to InfoShop      April 3, 1998

“This Summary of Project Information is prepared and distributed to the public in advance of consideration of the proposed transaction by the Corporation’s Board of Directors. It is provided for the purpose of enhancing the transparency of IFC’s activities and should not be construed as presuming the outcome of IFC Board consideration.”

For Additional Information contact: Corporate Relations Unit -
telephone: (202) 473-7711
facsimile: (202) 974-4384

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