Treasury scraps plans to sell TP stake

The Treasury instead hopes to divest itself of its TP stake in 2009, with the preferred partner for the transaction being France Telecom.

We have decided not to sell TP through a share buyback. We are interested in earning a premium and such a procedure would prevent this," Treasury Minister Aleksander Grad told Puls Biznesu.

Poland had previously said it would consider selling some of its 3.87-percent stake in the incumbent telecoms operator under the zł.700 million share buyback program which the firm launched in August.

According to Grad, the Treasury has given itself until the end of the year to strike a deal with France Telecom, TP's majority owner. "We want the agreement to treat the remaining stake as a whole," Grad said, adding that he hoped that the deal would be completed next year.