Gulf funds eye Polish fertiliser makers - official

Gulf Arab states' investment arms are interested in the privatisation of Poland's leading fertiliser makers Pulawy and Police, the head of Polish investment agency PAIiIZ said on Tuesday.

"There are a couple of sovereign wealth funds interested in a passive form of investing," Pawel Wojciechowski told reporters.

He mentioned Kuwait Investment Authority and Qatar's sovereign wealth fund as being interested in investments ranging from the purchase of a stake in the Warsaw Stock Exchange and Polish shipyards to real estate and the chemicals sector.

Poland has earmarked 12 billion zlotys ($3.9 billion) from the sale of the state-controlled companies in the next year's budget, but the global financial crisis could makes these plans difficult to achieve.

Earlier this year the government unveiled plans to consolidate the state-controlled chemicals companies into two larger groups and sell them to investors by the end of 2010. (Reuters)