Treasury Ministry strives for total control of LOT

Sairlines is currently in receivership, leaving a packet of 25% of LOT shares to be taken over by state-owned companies. Treasury Minister Wojciecj Jasinski claims that KGHM could purchase the shares, worth an estimated USD350-400 million. However, as a former LOT president has been appointed to the supervisory board of Bumar, there could be another contender for the parcel. The receiver in debt of Sairlines Europe, Rutger J. Schimmelpenick, said that the best way to sell shares would be to enter the stock exchange. The Treasury Ministry, however, is doing everything it can to take full control of LOT. It looks as if the carrier has even more turbulence on the horizon too, as on Thursday a meeting of the supervisory board and current acting president Marek Mazur was suspended. A new contest for the top job could be announced between two weeks and one month from now, leaving the carrier to flounder without a president in the meantime.(Rzeczpospolita, March 10-11, p.B3) M.M.