Vodafone and Tele Denmark booted off Polkomtel board

Polkomtel's foreign shareholders remained silent following the dismissal and resignation of three of their representatives from the mobile operator's management board last week. During a supervisory board meeting Polkomtel's state-controlled Polish shareholders asked foreign shareholders - Britain's Vodafone and Denmark's Tele Danmark (TDC) - to remove their representatives from the management board to "protect the interests of their companies," according to a statement issued by Polkomtel. The three Polish shareholders - miner KGHM Polska Miedź, oil refiner Polski Koncern Naftowy Orlen (PKN Orlen) and the Polish Power Grid (PSE) - together own 60.7% of Polkomtel while Vodafone and TDC control a 19.6% stake each. Some of Polkomtel's Polish shareholders are planning to create a new national telecom company comprising telecom holdings controlled by the state. According to press reports, four of Polkomtel's board members were suspended for opposing plans to include the mobile operator in the new entity. Last month, Vodafone and TDC said they would not support a project to include Poland's second-largest mobile operator as part of a primarily fixed-line operation. Analysts have said that the new holding would rely heavily on Polkomtel's financial resources to support the fixed-line companies that would comprise the new holding.

As a result, four members of Polkomtel's seven-member management board were dismissed and a fifth one resigned. The suspended members included the chairman Marek Mroczkowski, IT director Władysław Wilkans and two TDC representatives - financial director Jaspers Larsen and marketing director Lars Andersen. John Treuge, Polkomtel's technical director who is a Vodafone representative, resigned. The two original members left on the management board were Wojciech Pytel, Polkomtel's director of operations, and Krzysztof Żmijewski, the personnel director. Vodafone and TDC agreed at the supervisory board meeting that they would not comment on the dismissal of their representatives, said Sconaid McGeachin of MMD, the Warsaw public relations firm that is speaking on their behalf. "Until now disputes between shareholders have not led to compromise and because of that the supervisory board of Polkomtel decided to suspend four of seven members of the management board," said Stanisław Speczik, the chairman of the supervisory board, in a statement. Andrzej Szczepek, a supervisory board member, was appointed interim president of the management board. The dismissals forced the supervisory board meeting and a general shareholders meeting to be rescheduled for April 12, although Polkomtel said that the parties were working to appoint a new management board before then.