BlackRock holds 5 percent stake in Poland's Alior Bank

Founded in 2008 by an Italian group Carlo Tassara, the bank debuted on Warsaw Stock Exchange in 2012 with an offering valued at PLN 2.1 billion, the highest in the exchange's history. In 2014, Alior's stock price became part of WIG20 index. Since 2015, the bank commenced a series of mergers and acquisitions, most notably acquiring Meritum Bank (2015) and Bank BPH (2016).

• www.aliorbank.pl
• https://www.aliorbank.pl/biuro-maklerskie/fundusze-inwestycyjne/blackrock.html

WARSAW (Reuters) - BlackRock Inc (BLK), the world’s largest asset manager, has a small stake in Poland’s Alior Bank (WSE: ALR) that gives it more than 5 percent of voting rights, the bank disclosed on Friday.

Alior Bank, controlled by state-run insurer PZU (PZU.WA), is the subject of merger speculation as Bank Pekao SA (PEO.WA), also controlled by PZU, is keen to take over Alior and is set to decide this quarter whether to make a move.

Alior said BlackRock owned 4.99 percent of Alior shares and some other financial instruments, giving it 5.13 percent of voting rights in the bank.

Alior’s share price has fallen more than 9 percent this year, after surging 47 percent last year on strong results and merger speculation. It now has a market value of $2.8 billion on the Warsaw bourse.