Gov't tries to backtrack on steel privatization contract

The sum seems small as by the end of 2004 LNM, (currently Acelor Mittal) estimated the net value of the Polish corporation at USD1.93 billion and the value of the whole privatization agreement at USD 519 million. The Deputy Treasury Minister Pawel Szalamacha announced yesterday that if the talks with Mittal end in fiasco, the shares might be sold on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. He also did not exclude that the case might be resolved by an arbitration court in Paris, which would decide how and for how much the shares should be sold. As until now, Mittal representatives have not commented on the possibility of renegotiating the agreement. (Puls Biznesu, p. 11) A.K.