Treasury sums up sell-off options
Yesterday treasury minister Andrzej Chronowski said that he has yet a week in which to decide what to do with the PZU shares still in government hands. He also claimed that he saw a compromise possible in the fight with investor Eureko/BIG BG. If no agreement is reached in this time then the treasury will propose a plan by which a 51 percent stake in the insurance giant will be auctioned off.
The minister also claimed that one of the most important privatisation plans for this year was finding an investor for the Katowice, Sendzimir, Cedler and Florian steel works. Chronowski claims that the treasury does not expect to make much from the privatisation.
The sale of the alcohol producers Polmos is also a problem owing to the dispute with Agros on foreign trade mark rights. Parliament prepared a bill giving them to Polmos but President Aleksander Kwaśniewski passed the buck refusing to sign it and sending it to the Constitutional Tribunal who do not know what to do. Chronowski is convinced that the decision of the tribunal will not be a good one for the Polmos companies. Therefore little cash will be raised through their privatisation.
Andrzej Chronowski concluded that neighbouring countries do not allow their budgets to include funds from privatisation revenues. He thinks Poland should do the same.