Netia to buy stakes from Polish shareholders of Netia 1

Netia, a subsidiary of Swedish Netia Holdings listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE), will buy stake from Netia 1 shareholders, bank PKO BP, Tele-Tech Investment (TTI) and Warsaw-region energy distributor STOEN. Netia 1 holds a concession for inter-city telecom connections in Poland. PKO-BP and TTI will receive a total of almost $14.5 million in cash, while STOEN will convert stake in Netia 1 for shares of Netia Holdings. The Swedish company involved the three companies when acquiring the license due to the Polish telecom law, which allowed only consortiums with a majority of Polish capital to make application. Since the law was liberalized at the beginning of the year, Netia can now hold the license on its own. However, Netia 1, which was granted a license just a few months ago, has not reached agreement with Telekomunikacja Polska S.A. about inter-connection fees, and thus has not yet started providing service.(Parkiet, Jan. 20-22, p.5) M.M.