At the end of May, Mr. Kostrzewa will take over as president of BRE, a wholesale commercial bank ranked as Poland's seventh largest. Few analysts doubt that the Frankfurt-based powerhouse calls the strategic shots at BRE, but many observers see Mr. Kostrzewa's hand behind its recent aggressive moves. The offer set off a bidding war when Germany's Bayerische Landesbank AG and Sweden's Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken SA both said they would soon top BRE's bid. If BRE wins, call it par for Mr. Kostrzewa. Ignored or feared, Poland and Russia are at last drawing in foreign capital to match their size.
Capital flows into the Czech Republic and Hungary, once the region's darlings, are stabilizing.
Hans Peter Lankes, an EBRD economist, notes perceptions of risk are changing and purchasing power in dollar terms is way up, attracting Western firms. And investment can have a snowball effect. More is on the way, he adds. Another big market, Ukraine, has yet to attract much foreign capital at all. May. But private companies would be allowed to put forward bids to build greenfield power stations.