Problematic public offer of PZU: not until next year?

Treasury Minister Aldona Kamela-Sowinska has officially announced that it is uncertain if preparation of the public offer for Powszechny Zaklad Ubezpieczen (PZU) will be completed by the end of 2001. Treasury representatives have repeatedly confirmed that plans for a public issue of 50% of shares in PZU would materialize, regardless of the PZU-Eureko dispute. However, the privatization agreement assumes cooperation among shareholders during organization of the public bid, and Eureko's representative Michal Nastula said Eureko would closely monitor and actively counteract any attempts to place PZU on the WSE in breach of the privatization agreement. One of Eureko's conditions for settlement with the Treasury is the recall of current PZU Zycie chairman Grzegorz Wieczerzak. Treasury has been unable to dismiss Wieczerzak, despite several attempts. Analysts stress that the delay in share issuing would be mostly harmful to the state budget, as it would not gain the expected zl.5 billion from the offer, and thus, with simultaneous problems in the further privatization of Telekomunikacja Polska S.A. ( TP S A), it would be a major problem to obtain the zl.18 billion from privatization this year as planned. (Puls Biznesu, p.6; Prawo i Gospodarka, p.1) M.T.