Any LOT investor will do, says treasury
The Treasury Ministry will accept a financial investor outside the airline industry for LOT Polish Airlines, Jan Szczźsny, director of the ministry's department for strategic companies, told the Business Journal last week.
Szczźsny's statement follows recent speculation that several international carriers, including British Airways and Air France, had shown interest in investing in the Polish airline but that nothing had come of it.
Swissair, LOT's bankrupt strategic investor, is looking to divest its worldwide financial commitments, but other airlines are unlikely to want to commit to the Swiss airline's 25% stake, ministry officials and industry analysts said.
"No airline is interested in this stake," he said. "With the current state of the industry, you can't expect any airline to be prepared to invest in other carriers." Szczźsny also said that finding a financial investor to buy Swissair's stake would be in line with the government's strategy for LOT.
But he cautioned that it would not be up to the treasury to find the investor, but Swissair. "The contract with Swissair only gives us the right to give our consent to the sale," he said.
For its part, Swissair declined to reveal the airline's plans for its stake in LOT, although Erwin Scherer, the airline's spokesman, confirmed that the company will divest of "problematic participations."
But whatever happens to Swissair's holding in the Polish carrier, sources agreed that LOT has to join a global alliance now that the Swissair-led Qualiflyer group has fallen apart. "Our participation in an alliance is necessary, even if no capital commitment is involved," said Leszek Chorzewski, LOT's spokesman.
Elżbieta Marciszewska, an airline analyst at the Warsaw School of Economics agreed: "A capital alliance would be best, but if it's not possible then LOT shouldn't wait but join (another) alliance."
Apart from Swissair's stake, the treasury owns 68% of LOT, with the remaining 7% of shares belonging to employees.
The treasury increased its stake in LOT in mid-November following a government injection of zł. 313 million ($76.3 million) worth of shares bought from two banks - Bank Pekao and BZ WBK. LOT posted a zł. 252 million ($61 million) net loss in the first half of 2001.
Robert Wylot
