Elektrim board resignations: no change until April 20th?

Three members of Elektrim' s supervisory board have resigned, virtually blocking any changes among the company's executives planned by Vivendi, Acciona and Eastbridge. The three departing board members, chairman Jerzy Kolodziejczyk, Krzysztof Szwarc and Ryszard Kapluk, said they haaad to resign due to shareholder demands not to change the company's board before the extraordinary shareholders' meeting scheduled for April 20, as well as for the good of the company. According to the firm's by-laws, the incomplete board cannot make any binding decisions, especially concerning the supervisory board itself. Meanwhile, a "war of statements" continues between French Vivendi, Spanish Acciona and Dutch Eastbridge in their struggle for control over the company. Vivendi, which has sued Elektrim for not fulfilling the contract it signed in 1999, is now trying to obtain Elektrim' s non-telecom assets as well as its Elektrim Telekomunikacja shares, in which the latter's telecom assets would be concentrated. Elektrim has replied to Vivendi's charges but is not planning any counter-actions. The French group refuses to comment on its cooperation with the other two investors, but claim that under the 1999 contract any change in Elektrim's managing board will give it the right to take over the company. (Rzeczpospolita, p.B4) J.K.