Treasury Ministry plans to create PHF still this year

The government is planning to create a pharmaceutical holding out of several domestic pharmaceutical companies. The government program for restructuring the pharmaceutical sector entails the creation of an enterprise called the Polish Pharmaceutical Holding S.A (PHF), will be made up of several producers which have not been privatized. The concern would later be floated on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE). At least five major pharmaceutical companies will be part of PHF, all of them part of the Polfa group. The government estimates the value of the new holding will be somewhere between zl. 623 million to zl. 904 million and will probably be sold directly to investors on the stock exchange rather than through a search for sector investors. According to the Government Information Centre (CIR) the shares will be mainly directed at pension funds, investment funds and other long-term financial investors, as well as individual investors. The Treasury Ministry has hopes to consolidate the holding by the end of the year, with a debut on the bourse to take place sometime in the first quarter of 2004. It is expected that the holding will continue to employ the 7,500 who already work for the individual companies. (Zycie, p. 9) M.T.K