New Treasury Minister moves ahead with PZU sale

The new Treasury Minister Piotr Czyżewski said on Monday that he wanted to press ahead with the initial public offering of PZU and criticized its chief executive Zdzisław Montkiewicz. In his first interview since taking office, Czyżewski sought to smooth relations with PZU's strategic investor Eureko, which with Bank Millennium bought 30% of the insurer for $730 million in 1999. Dutch Eureko has taken the government to arbitration to press its case to complete a second deal to take its stake to 51% via an IPO. "I would like to begin the IPO of PZU as soon as possible," Czyżewski told Polish Radio. Eureko spokeswoman Lorrie Morgan said, "Taken at face value this is ex tremely good news." But analysts said logistical problems and weak global sentiment for insurers, hard hit by dropping equity prices, may delay the IPO until next year. (Puls Biznesu, pp. 1, 2, 6; Reuters) M.M.