Polsat group to restructure and bid for a UMTS license

Media and finance group Polsat will spin off its media activities into a single subsidiary, which is to find a financial investor and later be floated on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE). In addition to TV stations in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, the Polsat group also includes Invest Bank and PTE Polsat pension fund. "I would like to stress that the group's restructuring does not automatically mean the sale of financial entities, because this could take too long. It only means separating them from the media ventures," said Polsat owner Zygmunt Solorz. Several financial investors are interested in acquiring a stake in the Polsat media subsidiary, among them GE Capital. According to rumors, Polsat is likely to bid for the UMTS mobile telecom license together with Hutchison Whampoa or TIW. Solorz would not discuss the names of potential partners, but he said that the likelihood of Polsat participating in the UMTS auction is 99%.