More rational use of real estate may be forced upon ailing companies

Despite the difficult financial condition of many Polish companies, they are not looking to sell their unneeded fixed assets to obtain much-needed cash. Maciej Wojcikiewicz, real estate surveyor with CB Richard Ellis, says that f ormer state-owned companies often have problems managing their redundant pro perty. There were cases of receivers taking over companies owning real-estat e, which could have been sold and perhaps prevented the company from going b ankrupt. The most blatant example of a company with a huge excess of real es tate, which is not being sold despite a desperate financial situation, is Po lish State Railways (PKP). While PKP president Maciej Meclewski admits that their unneeded real estate could be worth several billion zloty, he believes that selling the most valuable plots of land in city centers is not a good i dea. Instead, he claims PKP should enter into property development joint-ven tures, thus ensuring revenues for many years to come. This year PKP plans to obtain around zl. 250 million from the sale of real estate. Meanwhile, many heavy industry companies from Silesia hesitated to sell their property, only to see it seized by the Social Security Office (ZUS) and tax offices, due to unpaid premiums and taxes. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B1) T.J.