Who do they think they are kidding?
I shouldn't complain about this government specifically. My gut instinct is that the last government was worse on this matter and the government prior perhaps worse still. But it proves something: retaining state ownership of firms and, thus, putting politicians directly in charge of business, leads directly to question: who are they kidding?
1) Treasury Minister Aleksander Grad presented his vision Wednesday for the '"privatization" of the chemical industry. Two market-listed firms in which the Treasury has a majority stake, Police and Pulawy, should be sold to a single investor who will later consolidate the two. Grad names the state-controlled gas industry monopolist PGNiG as the best possible buyer. Hmm. Selling stakes of over 50% in two firms to a third company in which the state owns 85% falls short of the textbook definition of privatization.
2) Grad proceeds to say that the decision to buy or not buy Police and Pulawy is one which (the 85% state-owned) PGNiG must make independently and on the business and economic merits. Ostensibly, he is saying this to the management of PGNiG, his hand-picked or at least sanctioned employees. Grad sold his program to the press conference with constant reference to how widely the program had been consulted amongst the many interested groups and industry experts for many months, then seemingly played dumb on the question of whether PGNiG likes or dislikes the idea. He repeatedly stressed that the Ministry has alternative scenarios 'if PGNiG should decide not to,' or “PGNiG must say if it is interested in purchase of these two firms or not” and et al, but . . . .
3) Minister Grad proceeds to say that a second chemical group, created around Ciech, Tarnow and Kedzierzyn, would serve itself well to buy rival Anwil, the chemical unit of listed fuel group PKN Orlen (itself 27% owned by the state and, thanks to voting restrictions, controlled by the state). Again, Grad suggests that Orlen now has to proceed to make a balanced decision on the merits. The Grad quote went along these lines: "PKN Orlen must provide an answer to what role it sees for Anwil in this area. The debate on the management and supervisory board and what we hear in media as an effect of these talks, suggest that Anwil could be put up for sale. If this will be the case and that will be the company's decision, the decision of the corporate organs, I will recommend that a consortium of Ciech, Tarnow and Kedzierzyn take place in this consolidation." . . . "[The sale of Anwil] will be an open tender and won't mean that this consortium will win. . . but from the point of view of the interests of this group . . . . "
4) Surprise: That very morning, THAT VERY MORNING, a vice-president of PKN Orlen, Jacek Krawiec, was quoted in a large spread in the daily Puls Biznesu saying that Orlen does not wish to act as the consolidator of the Polish chemical industry and would much rather sell its chemical assets, notably Anwil. Within 12 hours he proved to be fully in line with the Treasury Minister’s (the lead shareholder’s) own thinking on the matter. Read that morning, the news was the kind of major strategy statement and the type of confidence on policy issues you wouldn't expect from anyone other than the CEO himself. But . . . that's actually the problem. Newcomer Krawiec, a man about town but one without a day's experience in the fuel industry before this government came to power, is the Treasury's man at Orlen.
If they are kidding anyone, it might be themselves, the party that presented itself pro-privatisation as the only means to secure improved corproate governance. As long as all of these firms are to remain state-controlled, stay tuned for more updates to our list.
