Treasury lists state enterprises it will hang on to

The rest of the 1,300 state-owned enterprises are slated for either privatization or sale to local governments and while no details have been disclosed, the list is said to include more than 10 companies in which the Treasury holds "golden shares" under a separate law passed two years ago. These include KGHM, PKN Orlen, Lotos, PGNiG, PKE, PKP, PSE, among others. It is not known, however, whether the Treasury will include TP SA or LOT on the list, which would mean increasing its numerical or voting shares in these companies. The plan has been criticized by former Treasury ministers, with Janusz Lewandowski of PO says Ukraine toyed with a similar idea without success, and that protecting "strategic assets" may harm consumers. Wieslaw Kaczmarek, a former treasury minister in the last SLD government, says that if the list is meant to consolidate the state's role in the economy, the whole idea is misguided. (Gazeta Wyborcza S. 26)