February 15 at the general meeting of shareholders PZU Group all members of the supervisory board who were nominees of the previous government were dismissed. In their place, nine new ones were appointed, indicated by the state treasury, which controls the insurer (has 34.18 percent of shares).
The new PZU supervisory board was joined by, among others: Wojciech Olejniczak – ex-boss SLD and former Minister of Agriculture, who is said to be responsible for preparing the competition for president of PZU. This competition is to be announced tomorrow.
Entangled in PiS and salaries?
The PZU Management Board will certainly be replaced. If only because he is the current president of PZU Beata Kozłowska-Chyłai.e. related to Mateusz Morawiecki former advisor Przemysław Gosiewski, who died in the Smolensk catastrophe. The current management board also includes, among others: former MP PIS and head of the office AndrzejBagpipe – Małgorzata Sadurska and former boss CBA Ernest Bejda.
The names mentioned above are associated not only with insurance activities, but also with exceptionally high salaries. Let us remind you that in the “Annual Report 2022” (there is no data for 2023 yet) it is stated that Małgorzata Sadurska earned PLN 2.05 million in 2022, and PLN 1.801 million a year earlier. This was the highest salary among all members of the PZU management board. In total, all members of the management board received remuneration of PLN 15.5 million.
Names on the sidelines
Who can be elected to replace President Kozłowska-Chyła? The list of names included, among others: Andrzej Klesyk (he was already the president of PZU in 2007-2015), Witold Jaworski – he, in turn, held the position of vice-president in 2007-2012 during the government Civic Platform and a member of the management board of the subsidiary PZU Życie in 2015-2016. Later he became involved in investing in technology startups in the insurance sector. In turn, Wyborcza.biz reported in January that he was to be appointed president of PZU Jakub Karnowski. This is also an interesting candidate. During the previous PO government, he was the president of the management board PKO TFI (since 2008), and in 2012-2015 he headed it PKP SA. Apparently it’s in the game as well CezaryStypułkowski – he was already the president of PZU in the years 20023-2006, currently president mBank.
Changes in the PZU management board are not just a simple reshuffle at the top of power. This is a harbinger of upcoming, monumental changes in the Polish financial sector. The new government is preparing to take control of the banking conglomerate Pekao and Aliorand PZU is to play a key role in this game.
It’s also about entering banks…
Currently, PZU holds 20 percent. shares in Pekao and 31.91 percent in Alior. These shares are the result ofrepolonization“banks, i.e. an action aimed at bringing them back under Polish control. This operation, carried out during the government BeataAwlhas become a kind of “experiment” combining the power of the state insurer with the banking sector.
Therefore, since there are at least two banks “to be recovered”, there are also seats to be filled on two management boards. However, a position in the PZU management can be treated as a position less exposed to financial turbulence. Banking sector entangled in the dispute over Swiss franc loans, he is also doomed to reduced profits in the future – and this is associated with the inevitable decline in interest rates.
Powszechny Zakład Ubezpieczeń SA Capital Group is the largest financial institution in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe. The company has been listed on the stock market since 2010 Warsaw Stock Exchange. The group manages assets worth approximately PLN 300 billion and provides services to approximately 22 million customers in five countries. The State Treasury has approximately 34.2 percent in PZU. shares.
