Treasury considers parallel negotiations for TPSA stake

"Offers provided by France Telecom and Telecom Italia to buy shares of Telekomunikacja Polska (TPSA) are similar," said Treasury Minister Emil Wasacz. France Telecom, in consortium with Polish conglomerate Kulczyk Holding, and Telecom Italia are shortlisted in a tender for 35% of state-owned TPSA worth $3.6 billion at current market prices."I am leaning toward parallel negotiations," said Wasacz. "It would be an evident way to make the two firms bid against each other to get the highest possible price," said Zbigniew Betlewski from AmerBrokers. The Ministry plans to close the deal by the end of July and it also estimates the revenue from selling the shares would be as high as $4 billion or 50% more than what it would have received if it had not cancelled the tender in December. If it gets such a sum, it would be the highest amount ever gained for a privatization in Poland. (Parkiet, page 1, Reuters) M.M.