Poland

GetBack has postponed its 2017 earnings announcement and initiated restructuring plans, the Polish debt collector said, Reuters reported. “The management board decided to proceed with work aimed at preparing documents related to restructuring within the meaning of the restructuring law,” GetBack said in a statement late Monday. “The management board, guided by the good of the company and all entities remaining with the company in any legal and factual relations, undertook actions aimed at avoiding the effect of the company’s insolvency,” it said.

Polish debt collector GetBack has so far failed to redeem bonds worth $25 million (18 million pounds), it said on Thursday, augmenting worries about the remaining $719 million worth of bonds of a firm that only last year used to be a darling of capital markets, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. The sudden crash of the bonds and shares of GetBack has taken investors, analysts and regulators by surprise, weighing on share prices of other listed firms. The ratings agency Fitch cut its rating for GetBack's debt to 'restricted default' on Thursday.

The European Union raised the stakes against Poland over judicial overhauls Brussels calls undemocratic, laying the groundwork for an unprecedented punishment after months of acrimony, the Wall Street Journal reported. The EU’s executive body on Wednesday triggered a never-used sanctions procedure known as Article 7 and informally dubbed the “nuclear option,” taking an unprecedented step aimed at bringing Poland back into line. However, the move risks alienating Warsaw even further from its European counterparts while exposing the EU’s weakness in enforcing its political vision.

Poland is slashing back plans to tap the bond market after a crackdown on tax avoidance raised more cash than expected, the Financial Times reported. The eastern European nation is running a budget deficit just a tenth of the size it forecast for this year, thanks to a pick-up in economic growth, as well as higher revenue from the tax reforms.

Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo sacked her finance minister on Wednesday and gave the job to the influential economy minister, saying a reshuffle was needed to make the government's wide-reaching economic stimulus plan more effective, Reuters reported today. Since winning an election last October, Szydlo's Law and Justice (PiS) party has pledged to spend billions of euros of private and public money to boost growth and wealth in Poland, while also giving the state more say in the economy.

The last overhaul of the pension system walloped Poland’s stock market, but the former banker charged with overseeing a new revamp says he is confident he can avoid a repeat, Bloomberg News reported today. “One of our aims is to strengthen the Polish capital market and make the bourse more attractive for companies seeking debuts,” Pawel Borys, who heads the state-run Polish Development Fund, said last week.

Poland's fourth biggest power group Energa said on Thursday it was not interested in buying assets or shares in state-run coal miner JSW as part of a rescue plan, Reuters reported. Poland's energy minister said on Wednesday that JSW, EU's biggest coking coal producer, may need a share issue as it needs more money than estimated last year. This has sent JSW shares 13 percent down on Wednesday and a further four percent on Thursday. Analysts also said that the comments have weighed on Energa's share price on fears that it will have to continue to help rescue state-controlled coal mining firms.

Poland risks breaching EU fiscal deficit rules in 2017 as the new populist government steps up public spending to pay for childcare handouts and promised tax cuts, the OECD has warned, the Financial Times reported. The EU’s sixth-largest economy is forecast to break rules mandating a fiscal deficit below 3 per cent of gross domestic product next year unless it backs down on the spending promises or finds a way to increase tax revenues rapidly.

Poland's prime minister has dismissed Deputy Finance Minister Konrad Raczkowski, the finance ministry said on Wednesday, over his comments that a few small lenders were destined to fail, Reuters reported. "We can confirm that Raczkowski has been dismissed by the prime minister," the ministry's press office said. Earlier this month, Raczkowski said that a few small Polish lenders were "toxic" and would go bankrupt later this year. In response, the financial regulator KNF said the banking sector was stable and effective.

Several small Polish lenders will fail this year, but their bankruptcies will not hurt Poland's financial system, deputy Finance Minister Konrad Raczkowski said. "Several banks are 'toxic' and they will fail this year still. They are small lenders, let me reassure you right away, and it will not disturb the Polish financial system," Raczkowski was quoted as saying by state agency PAP on Thursday. The failures will not be caused by Poland's new bank asset tax, Raczkowski said, but will be a result of mismanagement and poor institutional supervision.