PKO Leads Drop as Tusk Unveils Share Transfer Plan: Warsaw Mover

PKO Bank Polski SA (PKO) led Polish stocks lower after Prime Minister Donald Tusk unveiled plans to transfer shares in state-owned companies to an investment vehicle that may sell government holdings.

PKO, the nation’s largest bank, slid 2.2 percent to 36.29 zloty at 1:35 p.m. in Warsaw, the most in a month on a closing basis. The decline accounted for 52 percent of the drop in the benchmark WIG20 Index, which retreated 0.7 percent. The state treasury holds a 33 percent stake in PKO. State-owned PGE SA, the country’s largest utility, slid 1 percent.

The government will set up Inwestycje Polskie, a special- purpose vehicle, to take shares in state-run companies as part of plans to finance about 90 billion zloty (28 billion) in investments in the next six years, Tusk told lawmakers today. The unit will receive shares before 2014 and may sell them directly on the market, Treasury Minister Mikolaj Budzanowski said. He didn’t say which company shares will be transfered.

“Investors are concerned about the extra supply on the market,” Marcin Materna, an analyst at Bank Millennium SA (MIL), said by phone from Warsaw. “The decline shouldn’t last because it was known that those stakes are for sale when the government needs money.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Piotr Skolimowski in Warsaw at pskolimowski@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gavin Serkin at gserkin@bloomberg.net