Sale of WSiP publishing house - deadline extended due to plan to buy Wkra

The Treasury Ministry has extended the deadline for submitting final offers for the purchase of shares in WSiP, a state-owned publisher of schoolbooks which is undergoing privatization procedures. The potential investors, Agora and Muza - companies quoted on the Warsaw Stock Exchange - and MAC Edukacja, a Kielce-based publisher, now have until September 24. All three bidders have completed due diligence in WSiP but now the privatized company has new plans that may affect its value. WSiP wants to buy book wholesaler Wkra, which is on the verge of bankruptcy with net losses last year of zl. 10 million. The main problem is that Wkra is owned by Polska Dystrybucja Ksiazki in which Muza has a 51% stake. "We can imagine a situation whereby Muza purchases WSiP for money which it had previously got from it," said one of the bidders who considers WSiP's plans unfair. The transaction will be possible only if the Treasury Ministry grants its permission. So far, WSiP has not asked for it, however it is said unofficially that the ministry would agree without any problems and that symbolic price for buying Wkra would be fixed at zl. 1. (Puls Biznesu, p. 8) A.D.