KGHM worries about the Treasury Ministers appetite

Last year, the company was surprised when it had to pay out 87% of its 2005 profits. Last year, the profit was zl.2.29 billion, this year it is expected to exceed the forecasted zl.3.38 billion. Marek Fusinski, the deputy financial director of KGHM said the miner planned to allocated zl.1.4 billion (about 40% of the profit) for dividends, but added that everything depends on the will of the shareholders. At the end of 2006, the company accepted a strategy for 2007-2016 in which it assumed that it will allocate zl.1 billion per year on investments. However, according to Józef Czyczerski from the KGHM trade union, this would not prevent the Treasury from asking for a high dividend. He said that the Minister is not familiar with company's real needs and added that KGHM needs far more on investment than zl.1 billion per year. (Puls Biznesu p. 3) M.M.