Poczta Polska: state-owned giant enters path towatrds commercialisation as full market liberalisation looms

The following is a summary of an interview, featured in Rzeczpospolita, with Tadeusz Bartkowiak, chief executive of Poczta Polska, the state-owned post operator, Poland’s largest employer. Poczta Polska is about to change its status from a state-owned enterprise into a commercial company. Why? “Our updated strategy provides for Poczta to be commercialized and transformed into a joint stock company. That is necessary for a number of reasons,” says Bartkowiak. “Firstly, the procedures that we have to observe as a state-owned enterprise don’t give us the rights that commercial companies enjoy. For instance, the procedures imposed by the public procurement regulations mean that our investment processes are sluggish, and our reaction to the market’s needs delayed. This means we aren’t always able to act swiftly enough on a competitive market. The structure of a commercial company is also more transparent, and the competences of its organs are more precisely defined. New financing options become possible. All that meant that we started analyzing Poczta’s situation. On the basis of legal and strategic studies, as well as an analysis from PricewaterhouseCoopers, we decided that the best scenario was of first commercialization, and then privatization and flotation. The idea of commercialization is backed by virtually all involved, including Poczta’s managers. Our position was communicated to the infrastructure minister, and the council of ministers subsequently acknowledged commercialization as an important feature of Poczta’s development strategy. Also the combined infrastructure and Treasury parliamentary committees gave a go-ahead for Poczta’s commercialization.