Court debt threat forces Elektrim to sell telecoms sectors

Elektrim, a publicly listed company operating in energy and telecommunication sectors, wants to restrict its operations solely to the energy sector. In a few weeks time the company will sign an agreement with their partner, French media concern Vivendi, to sell its shares of Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa (PTC), the largest domestic mobile phone network, which is currently owned by both companies. Its majority stake in the Era mobile network would go to Deutsche Telekom group which currently owns a minority of Era's shares. The news, spread on Wednesday by Reuters, made Elektrim's shares price rise by 8% to the level of zł.8.25. During the September 3rd Elektrim's shareholders meeting a decision will be made to repay its zł.2 billion debt earlier than planned. "These are our intentions. We want to pay our creditors and we will raise the money by selling our telecommunication assets," said Ewa Bojar from Elektrim. Creditors accuse Elektrim of breaking the conditions of debt agreement. Should a London court rule they are right in their claims, the debt would have to be repaid immediately and that would mean the end of Elektrim. (Puls Biznesu, p. 8) D.W.