France Telecom focused on debt reduction for 2005, not buying more of TP

"Reducing debt, not capital transactions, will be France Telecom's (FT) priority in 2005," said Jean-Paul Cottet, a representative of the French operator and a member of Telekomunikacja Polska's (TP) supervisory board.

FT plans to buy the remaining 3.57% of TP's shares that are now owned by Jan Kulczyk's holding. Cogecom, a subsidiary of FT, bought almost 10% TP's shares from Kulczyk Holding subsidiaries in October. However, FT could not buy the whole 10% then, as in order to do this it would have to announce a call for shares. The transaction was thus conducted in two parts, as demanded by the Securities and Stock Exchange Commission (KPWiG). Cottet also said that FT is for now unwilling to buy 3.7% of TP shares from the Treasury. In 2005 FT will concentrate mainly on reducing its debt. On FT's plans for 2006, Cottet said: "Anything is possible." The decision to introduce its brand of mobile services, Orange, in this country has not been made yet. FT does not see the need of changing the ownership structure of PTK Centertel, as currently TP owns 66% of the operator's stock while FT owns 34%. At the moment, FT owns 43.93% of TP. (Parkiet, p. 3) D.W.

Source: WBJ