A new battle for Ciech, the largest chemical holding in this country, seems about to begin with management on one side and the treasury on the other.
The date of the shareholders meeting has been brought forward to 14 February. The main subjects under discussion will be replacing the management board, changes in the supervisory board and the way of voting at shareholdersà meetings. The treasury is seeking to change the latter to a majority vote, whereas at present it is 75 percent.
The treasury is clearly trying to watch its back. The reason is that last year Ciech tried to push through a new share issue which was directed to subsidiaries in order to limit the role of the treasury and reduce its stake to 28 percent. Word has it that stock in the company has been bought up by subsidiaries and that the treasury may find it difficult to find the extra 23 percent votes needed to get a 75 percent majority at the AGM. The treasury currently has a 52 percent stake in the company. The subsidiaries will almost certainly back the management against the treasury. One subsidiary, Janikosoda, recently increased its stake from 0.5 percent to 6.3 percent.
Another subsidiary, Ciech Inwestycje, has a 3.8 percent stake. The current management of Ciech is also the management of this company. In this way management has managed to obtain an extra 16 percent of the vote.
Many major shareholders of the company have sold their stock. The Kedzierzyn chemical plant sold its stake in April 2000 through a stockbroker although the company does not know who bought them. The same is true of the Police chemical works. PKN Orlen also wants to sell out as part of its policy of disposing of assets not associated with its core business. Other companies with stock for sale include Orlen subsidiary Anwil and the Rokita chemical plant.