Government approves plan for sale of 30% of PKO BP

The cabinet yesterday approved an outline for selling off the country's largest savings bank, PKO BP. Under the plan, a 30% stake in PKO BP would be sold in around 12 months' time, in an initial public offering aimed at Polish retail investors. The State Treasury would keep a controlling stake. "The PKO privatization should be completed by 2004 or 2005," Treasury Minister Aldona Kamela-Sowinska told a news conference after the cabinet meeting. She added that after the IPO, the bank would raise additional capital by selling new shares to institutional investors. However, the left-wing opposition said it will change the plan if it wins the upcoming general election. "I would not treat today's decision on the PKO privatization as an important event. I am confident that the next government will revise it," said Wieslaw Kaczmarek, senior deputy of the opposition Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), and the man tipped to be the next treasury minister if, as expected, the SLD win the September election. PKO BP is said to be worth zl.4 billion, and the income from the privatization, if it goes ahead, could be as high as zl.1.2 billion. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B1; Reuters) P.W.