INTESA SANPAOLO, Italy’s second biggest lender, has pulled out of the bidding process to buy AIB’s Polish bank Zachodni, sources said yesterday.

Intesa, which last month confirmed it was among companies conducting due diligence on Zachodni, withdrew from bidding due to the high price and the lack of synergies on the Polish market, one of the sources said.

The remaining bidders, PKO Bank Polski, BNP Paribas and Banco Santander, already have operations in Poland and they would be able to reduce their costs if they bought Zachodni, the person said.

AIB is selling its 70 per cent stake in Poland’s third biggest bank by market value to help meet capital requirements set by the Financial Regulator.

The stake was valued at 9.31 billion zloty (€2.3 billion) at the close of Warsaw trading yesterday.

No comment was available from AIB or Intesa.

AIB last week recorded a pretax loss of just over €2 billion for the first half of the year.

At that stage the bank’s managing director, Colm Doherty, said he expected the sale of AIB’s Polish and UK units to be agreed by the end of next month.

The bank must raise €7.4 billion by the end of the year if it is to meet the Financial Regulator’s new standards.

AIB is disposing of stakes in MT Bank in the US and Zachodni in Poland, in addition to its UK interests, as part of its plan to raise the capital required.

Mr Doherty warned that AIB would need continued Government support.

To this end, he called for an extension to the State bank guarantee scheme, which is due to expire in December.

– (Bloomberg)