Privatizatin notes

   The treasury has signaled that it may drop plans to complete the privatization of copper and silver group KGHM Polska Miedz next year, following protests from the company's influential trade unions. But in a letter sent to the unions, Treasury Minister Andrzej Chronowski confirmed earlier plans to sell a further 10% in the mining group to domestic and foreign financial investors next month. "An announcement of the possible plan to complete this privatization is nothing but an announcement. It will not be implemented if it lacks support," Chronowski wrote in the letter dated Oct. 11. The treasury, which now has 49.55% in the company, started the privatization of KGHM in 1997 through a flotation of a minority stake on the Warsaw and London Stock Exchanges. In 1998, Poland abandoned plans to sell a further 30% on the exchange after protests from the firm's trade unions. The unions have long feared that KGHM may be taken over by a strategic investor, which would enforce layoffs among the firm's 18,600-strong workforce. KGHM, the Warsaw Stock Exchange's fourth-largest stock by market value, has been under downward pressure since mid-September when the treasury said it planned to complete the miner's sell-off next year after selling 10% by the end of 2000.

   Treasury Minister Andrzej Chronowski announced that next year's income from privatization will amount to zl. 18 billion ($3.9 million). Of that sum, zl. 11 billion ($2.4 million) is already earmarked to reinforce pension funds. One of the ministry's other priorities is the further privatization of LOT Polish Airlines, the Pekao bank, insurer Powszechny Zaklad Ubezpieczen (PZU) and Telekomunikacja Polska. One of the main issues under debate is the privatization of the steel industry, which has already been delayed two years. "If a given company has a strategy supported by the firm's management board and the staff, I will not disturb it but immediately accelerate the privatization process," Chronowski said. (Rzeczpospolita)