PKP loan contract this month
A fixed term loan of EUR190m will be given to railway authority PKP by a consortium of banks made up of Citibank (Poland), Bank Handlowy w Warszawie, Dresdner Bank Luxembourg, Westdeutsche Lansdesbank Girozentrale and Westdeutsche Landesbank Polska. Roman Hajdrowski, press spokesperson for PKP said that this offer was considered to be the best by a committee made up of representatives of the PKP, transport and finance ministries as well as the stock market commission.
The one year loan is to be repaid by the sale of bonds which will be issued by PKP SA (the forthcoming name for the railway authority). The PLN1.7bn bond issue will be guaranteed by the treasury and issued in four tranches in the second half of this year and in the first half of next.
The winning consortium beat four others. The first was made up of HSBC Investment Banking, BRE Bank and Commerzbank, the second PKO BP, BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank Polska, the third ING Bank (Dublin) and Bank Śląski, whilst the fourth included the Polish branch of Bank of America, Sanpaolo IMI and Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego.
Maciej Stańczuk, MD of Westdeutsche Landesbank Polska, said that PKP had informed them that their offer had been accepted and that a contract could be signed at the end of March. The credit is needed to pay off other short term debts such as a EUR300m loan granted by a consortium made up of Citibank, WestLB Polska and Dresdner Kleinwort Benson which was needed to pay social security organism ZUS. The remaining PLN400m will be used to pay debts to companies like the wagon manufacturing companies ZNTK who are at the edge of bankruptcy. This is not the only loan currently being transferred into the PKP's bank account. The next tranche of a EUR100m loan granted by the EBRD will also soon be credited. A USD150m loan from the World Bank should also be soon arriving which is aimed at reducing employment which should drop from 168,000 people to 145,000.