Treasury Min. decision unravels Polpharma investor deal

The Treasury Ministry did not sign an agreement with the consortium of Prokom Investments, Spectra Management, and Warta to purchase 80% of shares of the largest pharmaceutical company Polpharma yesterday as expected. This is the second time the Treasury has failed to complete negotiations on selling Polpharma. The consortium wants to buy Polpharma for about $80 million and also planned to invest additional tens of millions of dollars to further develop the company. Unofficial Treasury sources say the agreement was not signed, because the government walked away from the talks. "We were informed by the privatization adviser that our shares would not be sold on Tuesday. I do not want to comment further on this fact," said Polpharma president Miroslaw Mironowicz. Some speculate that the reason for ending the talks were political. Sources also unofficially add that Polpharma would be privatized in August, but in fact no one believes that is possible. (Prawo i Gospodarka, page 1, 3) M.M.