Government withdrawal leaves NFIs facing liquidation or change to VC funds

The State Treasury has announced that it will pull out of the national investment funds (NFI) earlier than anticipated. The plan is strongly supported by the funds themselves, who want as little government inter ference in their business as possible. "In 1993 when the concept of NFIs appeared, its authors estimated the Treasury would be in control for 10 years. This assumption, however, has been proved wrong, since the NFI program has been completed early and there is no reason for continuing it artificially," said Treasury Minister Wieslaw Kaczmarek. A Treasury analysis envisages two possibilities for the NFIs to function without the gover nment's involvement. The first option, suggested by the Supreme Board of Inspection (NIK), is liquidation of the funds. "This decision would have to be made by the funds' shareholders, that is various financial institutions. The liquidation would be based on the principles of the commercial company code. In this case the NFIs would be treated as regular stock companies," said Janusz Koczyk, deputy head of NFI Jupiter and head of the National Investment Funds Association (SNFI). The second scenario envisages the conversion of the NFIs into venture capital funds, concentrating on in vestments in start-up projects. (Puls Biznesu, p. 4) A.K.