Treasury reaps greatest returns from selling minority stakes

The most profitable transactions were its sale of GZE shares for zł.823.38 million; the selling of its stake in Philip Morris Polska, worth zł.51.84 million; and the off-loading of its Polfa Grodzisk stock, which brought in zł. 29.78 million. Over the next few weeks, several other companies already present on Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE), such as Jelfa, Impexmetal and Kopeks, will also be privatized. The ministry plans to float more companies on WSE in the near future. Indeed, there is a strong likelihood that Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne, an educational publishing house, will soon go public, and should this happen it is expected to bring in a profit of zł.400 million. Following this, Polish Oil and Gas (PGNiG) and the Southern Energy Concern (PKE) are also tipped for the sell-off. However, the privatization process for the two energy firms is likely to be extremely difficult. Nevertheless, Przemysław Morysiak, the deputy Treasury Minister, revealed that the ministry is already in talks with the Securities and Stock Exchange Commission (KPWiG) and the WSE's management board, thus both companies should make their debuts on the bourse by the end of the year. (Parkiet, p.9) J.J.