Warsaw (Puls Biznesu) – The Minister of the Treasure considers raising the dividend to be paid out by KGHM. Trade unions oppose although they themselves want big funds from the company.
Last Saturday, Wojciech Jasinski, the Minister of the Treasure, said he would consider raising the dividend. The GSM will be held on June 14. On May 31 it was broke by the Ministry. No one expected that it would be connected with a higher dividend. The management proposed PLN 1.1 billion, or PLN 5.5 a share.
“Last year’s level of dividend should be sustained, or PLN 700m. PLN 1.1 billion is much too much while the ideas to raise it were astonishing to me”, Ryszard Zbrzyzny, the head of the Trade Union of Copper Industry ZZPPM said.
He reminded that there are no funds to support some of KGHM’s subsidiaries like PeBeKa or Zanam-Legmet.
“The latter company needs many millions zlotys to reconstruct its machine park. The management does not see that the condition of these companies influences to costs of production. Besides, many investment projects will be held. KGHM faces stagnation”, Ryszard Zbrzyzny added.
“The company must be ready for worse times for the sector”, Jozef Czyczerski, the head of Solidarnosc trade union pointed out.
The results of the voting are no secret as the government owns 44 percent of the votes.
“Each shareholder has his right to propose how to divide the income. The management has proposed a certain level of dividend before and is not going to change it”, Mieczyslaw Piotrowski, KGHM spokesman said.
The trade unions would also like to pump funds out of KGHM. They apply for PLN 90m of bonus from the first quarter results. They would also like PLN 100m to be written down for social fund. In 2005, KGHM had PLN 2.29 billion of net income.