Treasury Minister bows to political pressure on G-8 tender

Deputies from the Polish Family League (LPR) and Self Defense have threatened to move a motion for his dismissal if he sold the G-8 energy group to Jan Kulczyk's El-Dystrybucja. Kaniewski declared that he would cancel the privatization bid, but maintained that the energy companies will be consolidated and that some of the stock would be sold on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. He also withdrew from the idea of merging the Lotos Group with PKN Orlen, but announced that he is planning to form a national banking-insurance giant by merging PKO BP and PZU. According to him, "This will be one of our last chances to retain at least partial control over the financial sector". (Parkiet, p. 1) A.F.