TM puts sale of state-owned telecom shares on hold

Until the final plan is prepared the Treasury Ministry (TM) ordered halting any transactions related to the disposal of the shares. "Until we have a clearly defined strategy, one cannot make activities changing the ownership structure in the companies, as they may be irreversible," said Piotr Rozwadowski, deputy Treasury Minister. This decision will concern, among others, KGHM-controlled Telefonia Dialog and the National Grid-controlled Exatel. "We want to nationalize this company, by giving the National Grid energy assets in exchange, for example an energy distributor. I will try to convince president Stanisław Dobrzański to stop the privatization procedure of Exatel," said Rozwadowski. The company might constitute a foundation for creating an operator of a special rescue network. Other scenarios envisage that state controlled telecom companies would be merged into one, which would become a competitor to Telekomunikacja Polska. (Puls Biznesu, pp. 1, 4) M.M.