Poland's state assets minister sees need to simplify portfolio of state-owned companies
Poland's minister of state assets Jakub Jaworowski sees the need to simplify the portfolio of State Treasury companies, the minister told the European Financial Congress in Sopot. In his opinion, the portfolio should be smaller and focused on strategic sectors.
"The portfolio of companies needs to be simplified. Currently, the Ministry of State Assets [MAP - MI ed.] oversees around 110 companies, of which around 20 are responsible for 98 percent of the total revenue and the remaining 90 for 2 percent," minister Jaworowski pointed out.
He added that within these companies there are small entities in which the State Treasury has a little stake, and there are also companies that operate in similar industries.
"The Treasury is involved in companies in sectors where it is quite difficult to identify any strategic state interest. MAP's portfolio should be smaller, because a smaller portfolio, with fixed resources, means more effective supervision," Jaworowski stressed.
"Assets would be good to be grouped within strong sectoral organisms and the focus should be on strategic sectors," he added.
Poland's state assets minister pointed out that the Total Return index for companies directly controlled by the Treasury has increased by 22 percent in the last 12 months, with the WIG 20 Total Return gaining 18 percent and the Euro Stock Total Return gaining 6.9 percent.
"The Price/Earnings ratio has also managed to improve somewhat. It rose from 5 to 6 percent, but to put it colloquially - there is no frenzy here. In Europe and especially in the United States, these values are in the high double digits," Jakub Jaworowski said.
"But we are fighting, (...) not only to increase the value of companies, but also to share profits when they arise and this year dividend payments are planned for a total of PLN 5 billion for the state budget and the capital investment fund, although I am sure they will be much higher," he added.
pr/ ao/