Polish treasury to capitalise PIR from sale of shares in PGE, PKO BP, PZU
In an interview with Polish daily Rzeczpospolita Treasury Minister Wlodzimierz Karpinski has announced plans to reduce the Polish treasury’s stake in a number of state-controlled firms, including energy giant PGE, Poland’s largest bank PKO BP, insurance incumbent PZU, and the listed chemicals firm Ciech.
“Up for sale are shares in PGE, PKO BP, PZU and Ciech. This issue will be aimed at large investors. Proceeds from these sales will go towards capitalising the Polish Investments for Development fund, among others. It’s about small packages, we’ll retain corporate oversight after they are sold,” Karpinski told Rzeczpospolita.
Proceeds from the divestments will go towards funding Polish Investments for Development (PIR), a fund established by Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform (PO) government aimed at securing long-term infrastructure spending in Poland.
PIR provides funding to low- or medium-risk projects, with a view to driving GDP growth and creating jobs in Poland. A flagship co-finance agreement with Lotus Petrobaltic (LPB) in 2013 saw the fund investing in development of a Baltic oil field known as B8.
“PIR is an innovative administrative and business project. The eight-member team initially analyzed more than 100 projects. Fifty-one of those proceeded to a second phase of further analysis, and four of them have been provisionally approved. Lotus is the most advanced project, to do with the exploitation of oil and gas from the B8 in the Baltic Sea.”
The minister added that other divestments were in the pipeline, including plans for the privatization of energy firms Energa and Enea, from which the treasury hopes to raise some PLN 3.7 bln.
“We are also looking for an investor for Polski Holding Nieruchomosci [Polish Real Estate Holdings]” the minister added. “We also have lots of minority stakes to sell. When it comes to IPOs then there does not remain much room for manoeuvre.”
