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Polish coal miner Kompania Weglowa in talks with investors

Poland's Kompania Weglowa is in talks with investors about their potential capital involvement in the coal miner, its chief executive said on Tuesday.

"We asked more then 30 companies about their potential business involvement. We have a list of less than 10 companies, which we are talking to on this issue," Krzysztof Sedzikowski told a news conference, without providing details.

State-owned Kompania Weglowa, the European Union's biggest coal producer, is struggling with low coal prices and rising costs.

Sedzikowski said the companies in talks included two private companies, financial and strategic investors.

The talks are expected to finish by the end of June, but there could be one or two weeks' delay, he said.

Polish power producers including PGE which buy coal from Kompania Weglowa to fuel their power stations were expected to inject money into the miner but have not confirmed their interest so far.

Two sources said one firm that might be interested is Poland's investment vehicle PIR, which was designed to inject money into infrastructure projects. A PIR spokesman declined to comment.

Kompania Weglowa has said it needs about 2 billion zlotys ($550 million) of capital from new investors by the end of 2016, with 800 million zlotys of that to be raised this year.

New investors are expected to buy shares of the so-called New Kompania Weglowa, an entity that will be created on the basis of the company's most effective mines and initially owned by another state-owned coal exporter, Weglokoks.

($1 = 3.6390 zlotys)

source: http://www.reuters.com