Treasury walks a fine line in delaying sugar mill privatization, says investor

The Treasury Ministry's delay in privatizing the Kalisz-Konin Group of five sugar mills could lead to their liquidation, as they are in dire financial difficulties. The Ministry was supposed to sign a deal with German investor Pfeifer&Langen to buy the sugar plants by the beginning of December. The five plants badly need an injection of capital and the German investor is warning the Ministry that further delay could be very dangerous. "If they are not taken over soon, their creditors may break settlement negotiations and start trying to dissolve them," said Janusz Pierun from Pfeifer&Langen. In that case nearly 1,500 workers could lose their jobs, not to mention the farmers providing sugar beets. The Ministry may be dawdling on the deal because of a plan by a group of Sejm deputies to incorporate the Kalisz-Konin Group into a national Polish Sugar holding. Pfeifer&Langen is a 130-year-old food processing company, which has already acquired four sugar mills in Poland. (Puls Biznesu, p.14) M.K.