Ciech aims for Polfas despite Gov't plans for WSE float

Chemicals trading company Ciech wants to become a strategic investor in the state-owned conglomerate of pharmaceutical producers - Polfa Tarchomin, Polfa Warszawa and Polfa Pabianice. Meanwhile, the Treasury is planning to float 80% of the conglomerate on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) in 2004. However, Ciech is not discouraged. "This is good news for us, because if we do not buy the Polfas direct from the Treasury, we will still have the chance to acquire control f them later," said Ciech president Ludwik Klinkosz. "We want to merge and privatize the Polfas and if Ciech places an interesting bid, we shall certainly take it into consideration," said Treasury Minister Wieslaw Kaczmarek. Before 1989, Ciech was a foreign trade company, which sold all of Poland's pharmaceutical exports abroad. (Parkiet, p.1) T.J.