Elektrim board replaced, new offer from Elliott Advisors

The supervisory board of troubled Elektrim decided to change the company management board. Maciej Radziwill has been replaced by Wojciech Janczyk as the CEO. Analysts had been expecting this shake-up since early September. Up to now it was unclear whether just Radziwill was to go, or if the whole board was to be sacked as well. "I think that a new president is necessary to continue negotiations with bondholders if we are to see a breakthrough," said Radziwill. The Warsaw Stock Exchange had suspended trading in Elektrim pending the announcement of the management reshuffle. Yesterday it came to light that Elliott Advisors had put forward a new offer to acquire all the shares in Elektrim Telekomunikacja (ET), which owns a 48% stake in mobile operator PTC from Vivendi and Elektrim for a total of euro 1.3 billion. However, the fund only wants to acquire the package if it receives a company without debts and if Elektrim cancels its bankruptcy proceedings. At present ET has debts amounting to euro 600 million. The court has until October 7 to decide on whether to accept the bankruptcy motion. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B1; Reuters) M.M.