By Katya Andrusz and Dorota Bartyzel
Aug. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Poland’s Cabinet approved a plan to sell stakes in state-owned companies including KGHM Polska Miedz SA and Grupa Lotos SA in an effort to finance its budget deficit after tax revenue slumped and public debt soared.
“The plan acknowledges the need to speed up privatization,” said Prime Minister Donald Tusk at a press conference in Warsaw today. The budget “requires a cash injection to cover basic spending.”
The move will release almost 37 billion zloty ($12.5 billion) through 2010, a key contribution to financing the general budget gap, which the European Commission says may widen to 7.3 percent of gross domestic product in 2010 from an estimated 6.6 percent in 2009. That would send the shortfall to 95.52 billion zloty, nearly double the 2008 general government deficit, according to Bloomberg calculations based on the Commission’s forecasts.
The agreement sparked a workers strike earlier today at copper producer KGHM that lasted two hours. Tusk later responded with assurances that the Treasury will maintain a controlling stake in KGHM and Lotos, as well as in other power plants earmarked for divestment, after previously saying the state might sell as much as 42 percent.
“The revenue from the sale will be used by the state budget, thus it will be of benefit for all Poles and not only for the workers of KGHM,” Tusk said.
Poland remains the only one of the European Union’s eastern members to have avoided a recession since the global credit crisis started. Even so, next year’s budget is vital to boost the economy and put Poland back on track for euro adoption, after the government was forced last month to abandon its 2012 euro-adoption goal. It has not yet set a new target date.
‘Extremely Sensible’
“It’s high time that Poland undertook real privatization,” said economist Miroslaw Gronicki, a former finance minister, by phone. “Any revenue from privatization means a reduction in debt, and as far as the budget is concerned it’s an extremely sensible move.”
According to Stanislaw Gomulka, who served as deputy finance minister under the current government, asset sales would allow the government to circumvent political obstacles to resolving its fiscal dilemma. President Lech Kaczynski has said he would veto any attempt to raise taxes as a way of increasing budget revenue, while his twin brother and leader of the main opposition party, Jaroslaw, has ruled out cooperating on measures to augment revenue.
‘Virtually Impossible’
“The legislative route is virtually impossible for the government, so privatization is the only way out,” Gomulka said by phone. “Union protests have been a big factor in the lack of privatization in recent years -- but the situation has got so bad now this constraint might have been lifted.”
The government also plans to sell stakes in its largest power groups, including Polska Grupa Energetyczna SA and Enea SA, as well as oil refiner Grupa Lotos SA, the Warsaw Stock Exchange and coal mine Lubelski Wegiel Bogdanka SA.
The sale of 67 percent of Enea, valued at 7.4 billion zloty, would be the biggest disposal since France Telecom SA bought a stake in Telekomunikacja Polska SA in 2000. The state also holds 2.5 percent of Bank Handlowy w Warszawie SA, a subsidiary of Citigroup Inc., and 1.9 percent of Allied Irish Banks Plc’s Bank Zachodni WBK SA unit.
Ten-year bond yields could fall as much as 20 basis points over the next few weeks as the combination of higher asset sales and signs of economic recovery prompt investors to reassess Poland’s borrowing needs next year, said Mateusz Szczurek, chief economist at ING Bank Slaski SA in Warsaw.
“The government’s plan has the potential to do some good at the long end of the yield curve,” he said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Katya Andrusz in Warsaw at kandrusz@bloomberg.netDorota Bartyzel in Warsaw at dbartyzel@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: August 11, 2009 10:56 EDTsource：Bloomberg http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aOSBW1cN6CjE
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