PKN Orlen CEO: To Sell Polkomtel If Needed For Invest

WARSAW (Dow Jones)--Poland's PKN Orlen would sell its 19.6% stake in mobile operator Polkomtel if required to fund new acquisitions or investments in upstream oil production projects, Orlen Chief Executive Igor Chalupec said Tuesday.

"The basic option remains to sell (Polkomtel)," Chalupec told journalists at a news briefing on the company's new investment strategy.

Polkomtel's three main Polish shareholders - Orlen and copper producer KGHM, both with 19.6% stakes, and national power grid Polskie Sieci Elektroenergetyczne, with 17.6% - have long planned a joint sale of their holdings to the wireless operator's foreign shareholders.

Those plans got a jolt and possible boost in November, when the new owners of Denmark's TDC, which holds 19.6% of Polkomtel, said they also want to unload their Polish holdings.

That leaves Polkomtel's remaining 19.6% shareholder, Vodafone Group, as the logical buyer - but could also dictate that the Polish shareholders first use their first-refusal rights to join the TDC buyout, then sell the resulting combined 75% stake to Vodafone at a better price.

But Chalupec indicated no negotiations are underway and any buyout talk is premature.

"We need a concrete signal from TDC. For the time being, nothing's been determined," he said.

-By Marek Strzelecki and David McQuaid; Dow Jones Newswires; +4822 622-2766; marek.strzelecki@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires "

Posted to the site on 10th January 2006