Treasury opens tender for Stoen

By : Leo Broomfield

   The Treasury Ministry opened a tender Friday for the sale of 10-25% of Warsaw power distributor Stoen, treasury officials said.

   The ministry gave no deadline for the sale, but earlier this year it said it wanted to wrap up the distributor’s privatization by the end of the fourth quarter. It is not yet known what position newly elected Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) will take on the issue.

   “The (Jerzy) Buzek government said it intends to sell 25% of the company,” said Jakub Filipowicz, Stoen’s press officer. “What the next government will do is anyone’s guess.”

   Stoen is one of Poland’s most attractive electricity sector assets. “It is highly prized because it has such a good profile, strong assets in infrastructure and should be able to expand its activities into the IT sector if it chooses,” said Dariusz Marzec of Arthur Andersen, Stoen’s privatization adviser.

   Analysts said Stoen has a large and relatively affluent client base and enough cash to expand into other sectors.

   Stoen, one of the country’s largest regional power distributors, posted a net profit of zł. 17.2 million ($4.3 million) in 1999 on sales of zł. 1.11 billion ($264 million).