TPSA stake would yield control to French, Kulczyk

France Telecom will likely purchase an additional stake in Telekomunikacja Polska (TPSA) in July, giving it and its Polish partner control of the telecommunications giant, Treasury Minister Wiesław Kaczmarek told the WBJ last week. Michel Bon, the president of France Telecom, met with Kaczmarek last Friday to inform him that the French were ready to exercise their right to buy an additional 2.5% plus one share stake of TPSA. France Telecom and the Polish investment group Kulczyk Holding own 47.5% of TPSA, with 33.93% in French hands and 13.57% in Kulczyk's. The France Telecom-led consortium gained the right to purchase the additional stake as part of its agreement to buy a 12.5% chunk of TPSA last September. The new shares would give it a majority stake in TPSA. France Telecom will send a formal purchase declaration to the Treasury Ministry before the end of June and probably buy the shares next month, Kaczmarek said. The right expires at the end of 2002.

The terms of the previous purchase agreement specify that France Telecom and Kulczyk must pay a non-negotiable amount for the 2.5% plus one share stake based on the average price of TPSA's shares during the past 100 days plus 20%, according to TPSA. The telecom's shares are traded on the Warsaw and London stock exchanges. Last September France Telecom and Kulczyk Holding paid zł. 3.66 billion ($915 million), or zł. 20 per share, for a 12.5% stake in TPSA. In July 2000, the consortium handed over $4.3 billion, or zł. 38 per share, for its initial 35% purchase. Earlier this week, a Polish daily speculated that the consortium wanted to obtain the state treasury's remaining stake in TPSA to prevent it from transferring the shares to other state-controlled companies. But Kaczmarek said he did not discuss this matter with Bon. The treasury owns about one-fifth of TPSA.

Bon and Kaczmarek also discussed the government's plans to consolidate its telecom holdings into a new national telecom company known as Krajowa Grupa Telekomunikacyjna (KGT) and the treasury's controversial policy of using TPSA's shares for "possible improvement projects," Kaczmarek said. The treasury recently said it would give some of its TPSA shares to ailing government-owned entities that could use them to help revive their feeble operations. Bon and Kaczmarek also discussed how changes in Poland's telecommunications law would affect France Telecom's investment agreement concerning TPSA, Kaczmarek said. Bon also met with members of TPSA's management board and other politicians during his visit.