Kaczmarek indicates refinery may still be sold to Rotch

The newly appointed Treasury Minister yesterday indicated that he is leaning toward approving the sale of a majority stake in Poland's number two refiner , Rafineria Gdanska (RG), to British-based Rotch Energy. Wieslaw Kaczmarek s aid he would seal the long-delayed sale if Rotch proved its ability to secur e backing for an ambitious investment program for the Baltic coast refiner. "Yes, I will approve it provided that abilities to finance the post-privatiz ation program are confirmed," Kaczmarek said during an Internet chat organiz ed by the Gazeta Wyborcza daily. The previous government left it to the new Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) administration to make a final decision on wh ether to sell 75% of RG to Rotch. Earlier, the SLD had signaled it would pre fer to create a state-controlled national fuel group by selling RG to its la rger local peer, PKN Orlen. Rotch has said it will invest some $800 million in upgrading RG's refining assets, and pour in at least $100 million to more than triple its retail network to 1,000 outlets. However, local newspapers h ave raised questions about its ability to finance the RG purchase and the pr omised investment, after several financial members of its bidding consortium backed out. In the same Internet discussion Kaczmarek said that it will be i mpossible to attain the zl.18 billion privatization revenue this year envisa ged in the budget, and that the true figure will be zl.10 billion to zl.12 b illion. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 1; Reuters)