Under the deal, PGE will purchase a 100-percent stake in PKPE Holding from the Edison Holdings company by April 3, the businessinsider.com.pl website reported.
The deal means that PKPE Holding returns to state hands after seven years, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
In 2015, Poland’s previous Civic Platform-led government sold the group to American private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, according to IAR.
Comprising several subsidiaries, PKPE Holding’s business revolves around PKP Energetyka, a company that supplies electricity to Poland’s railway system, state news agency PAP reported.
‘A step in the right direction’: PM
Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki welcomed Wednesday’s transaction, describing it as “an economically good decision and a step in the right direction."
Writing in a Facebook post, Morawiecki added: “The return of companies that are strategically important for Poland’s security and growth into the hands of us all, namely into the State Treasury, is one of the pledges of the Law and Justice government that we’ve been consistently implementing for years, to the benefit of Polish families.”
Morawiecki went on to say: “State-run companies can act quickly, effectively and according to criteria other than just profit.”
‘A key transaction’: deputy PM
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister and State Assets Minister Jacek Sasin said in a tweet: “We are correcting the mistakes of Donald Tusk’s [Civic Platform] government. Strategic companies are returning to state hands.”
Sasin described the acquisition of PKPE Holding by PGE as “a key transaction” and “a big success.”
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, businessinsider.com.pl, wpolityce.pl