Sydkraft announces withdrawal from Poland

Sweden's Sydkraft surprisingly announced on Friday that it would withdraw from operations on the Polish market as part of a new strategy implemented by its majority shareholder, the German group E.ON. From now, all investments by the German company in Poland will be made through E.ON Energie. It has not yet been revealed, however, what will happen to six Polish heating plants controlled by Sydkraft. Meetings with officials from Koszalin, Ustka and Słupsk - who are their co owners - will take place on Wednesday. The Swedish investor also controls 48% of the shares in the Ostrowski Zakład Ciepłowniczy (OZC) heating plant, which is listed on the CeTO over the counter market. "We will find out after December 4, what our shareholder plans to do with the stake" said Marian Kazienko, OZC president. The future of Poznań-based Sydkraft Term is also unknown. "We have not yet begun negotiations concerning the sale of our assets in Poland," said Hakan Hagstrom, the managing director of Sydkraft Polen. (Parkiet, p. 5) A.K.