Cable lines privatisation 'threatens Polish economic interests,' claims security agency
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
19.11.2012 11:08
Poland's Internal Security Agency (ABW) has spoken out against the impending privatisation of cable car and funicular company Polish Cable Lines (PKL).
PKL cable car: Photo - wikipedia
PKL, which is owned by state rail operator PKP, controls about 100 hectares of land in Zakopane, Poland's winter capital, as well as a series of cable cars and funiculars.
Popular tourist sites such as the funicular and ski run at Zakopane's Gubalowka were developed in the 1950s, under communist rule, on land expropriated from local highlanders.
“The privatisation of PKL could open the way for the original owners to reclaim the land,” head of ABW Krzysztof Bondaryk told Polish daily Rzeczpospolita.
A potential buyer is Slovak company Tatra Mountain Resorts, which has already opened a consortium in Poland, and which, according to the paper, wants to create a skiing resort in Poland that would “rival the Alps.”
The PKP Group is selling PKL in a bid to pay off 4.3 billion zloty (1 billion euro).
Currently, PKP has a majority stake in, and in some instances a 100 percent ownership of twenty companies, but by 2015, it aims for this number to be reduced to just five.
PKL will be the first company to be put up for sale, with negotiations potentially beginning before Christmas.” (nh)