Poles jostle for new bank shares

Private investors are limited to buying 20,000 zlotys' worth of shares

Polish consumers are scrambling to sign up for shares in the country's biggest bank, ahead of its planned stock market debut next month.

They have until the end of Monday to register to buy shares in the bank, PKO Bank Polski.

The state is selling off a 30% stake in Bank Polski, of which about a quarter is reserved for private investors.

Staff are braced for long queues at the bank's branches, while police have said they will be on hand to keep order.

Interest in the Bank Polski flotation is running high, fuelled in part by analyst forecasts of investment returns of up to 15%.

Investment opportunity

"This is the first privatisation in quite a while in which ordinary people can buy shares, not stock exchange speculators," one would-be investor told the AP news agency.

Queues to register for Bank Polski shares have been organised using a listing system originally set up under the old communist regime to ensure that scarce consumer goods were fairly distributed.

Each private investor is entitled to buy shares worth a maximum of 20,000 zlotys ($5,700; 4,600 euros; £3,200).

A spokesman for the bank said early on Monday that the registration process was proceeding "smoothly."

The Bank Polski flotation marks Poland's biggest privatisation deal since 1998.

It also ranks as central Europe's biggest initial public offering of shares so far this year.

The Polish government, which has set itself a target of 8.8 billion zlotys in privatisation revenues this year, is hoping to raise some 6 billion zlotys from the Bank Polski sell-off.

Bank Polski turned in net profits of 844.4 million zlotys for the six months to June, up from 722.5 million zlotys in the same period last year.