The general assembly of PZU shareholders took place on Thursday and lasted all day. The meeting constituted the final stage of negotiations between the Minister of State Treasury and Eureko regarding the PZU agreement. During the session, called for the third time, the main shareholders agreed to create reserve capital amounting to 11.99 billion zlotys earmarked for the payment of the dividend, which will cover the compensation for the Dutch insurance provider.

Long-term conflict

There has been a long-term conflict between Eureko and the Ministry of State Treasury regarding the 1999 PZU privatization agreement. Debatable provisions of the agreement included stock-market debut and purchase of the package of 21% of the insurance provider’s shares. Eureko estimated their damages due to failure to comply with the provisions of the PZU privatization agreement to be approx. 35.6 billion zlotys, excluding costs of the proceedings and contingent interest. The 1999 agreement established an increase in Eureko’s shares in PZU from 33 to 54 per cent. After the Polish government withdrew from the annex to the privatization agreement (according to which Eureko was to purchase subsequent 21 per cent of PZU shares) in 2002, the Dutch company turned to the International Arbitrary Court claiming that the Polish government failed to comply with the investment protection agreement.
The Court’s 2005 and 2007 decisions were for Eureko. However, in October 2007 Wojciech Jasiński, the Minister of Treasury in the Law and Justice government withdrew from the 1999 sales agreement. As a result, Eureko – referring to the Court’s decision – claimed compensation amounting to over 36 billion zlotys. Poland refused to acquit the compensation and settlement discussions began in 2008.