Minister to announce September IPO for PGNiG

The company might debut on the bourse as soon as September 23, that is two days before the parliamentary elections. Socha is to make the official announcement today. This will be one of the largest IPOs in history of the Polish bourse as PGNiG is one of the largest domestic companies and is a leading importer of gas and has a monopoly on gas and oil extraction in Poland. The corporation is to offer shares worth some zł.1.5 billion to domestic and foreign institutions as well as to individual investors. The decision to publicly list the company's shares in such a hurry will definitely lead to a political conflict. Plans of selling the company on the bourse were already once blocked by the Civic Platform (PO) and Law and Justice (PiS) as recently as May this year. PO was afraid that the IPO would lead to higher gas prices for the customers, while PiS fears that Russia's Gazprom will acquire a significant stake in a company which has a strategic importance for the Polish economy. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 1) A.K.