Aerospace giant buys 51% stake in Polish aircraft maker

Yesterday a member of pan-European aerospace giant EADS CASA and its partner Avia System Group purchased a 51% stake in Panstwowe Zaklady Lotnicze Warszawa-Okecie for over zl. 28.5 million. Now CASA holds a 41% stake and AVIA a 10% stake in the Polish aircraft manufacturer. Under the deal the two companies will invest as much as zl. 16 million in PZL Warszawa-Okecie to raise the firm's share capital over the next two years. Additionally, CASA promised to buy the remaining 34% of PZL Warszawa-Okecie from the Treasury Ministry. "Under the social package the 800 employees have been guaranteed a 24-month employment contract", the head of the plant's Solidarnosc trade union Leszek Wisniewski told Prawo i Gospodarka. Additionally, the staff will receive a privatization bonus equalling one month's average salary, over zl.2,000 gross. The privatization of the indebted PZL was the condition under which the Polish government agreed to buy from CASA C 295 transport aircrafts for the Polish army. Poland will buy eight such planes for a total of $ 211 million. They will be delivered in 2003-5. As reported by Defence Minister Bronislaw Komorowski, the transport aircraft "is an issue essential to Poland's credibility as a NATO member".(Prawo i Gospodarka, p. 4; Reuters) A.Z.