Rift opens between investors over plans for Polkomtel

The foreign investors in Poland's number two mobile phone company Polkomtel, operator of the Plus GSM network, are opposing planned changes to the company's management board. An informal meeting of Polkomtel's supervisory board on March 8 agreed to install a new board, which is expected to support plans to include the company to Krajowa Grupa Telekomunikacyjna (KGT), the State-sponsored rival for TPSA. However, Britain's Vodafone and Denmark's TDC are opposed both to changing the company's management and to its involvement in KGT. "We do not intend to back the petition for changes to the management board. The present authorities have our full support. We do not understand why the management board should be replaced, since it is running the company well and earned zl.600 million last year," commented a representative of Polkomtel's foreign shareholders, quoted by Puls Biznesu. Under a plan supported by Polkomtel's Polish co-owners, namely copper concern KGHM, leading oil company PKN Orlen, and the national power grid PSE, the current Polkomtel management will be dismissed on March 27. However, the foreign investors' representative said, "We may not agree to changing the agenda of the meeting. Or we may walk out, so there will no quorum." (Puls Biznesu, p. 5) M.T.