Jan Kulczyk
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Jan Kulczyk, born June 24, 1950, in Bydgoszcz, is a prominent Polish businessman. According to the Wprost newspaper, his fortune is estimated at PLN 12.5 billion (approximately USD$ 4 billion).
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[edit] Education
Kulczyk is a law graduate of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań as well as a graduate of foreign trade at the University of Economics in Poznań. He holds a Ph.D. in international law. His business activities are a continuation of a family business tradition into the third generation.
[edit] Possessions
His father set up three companies after WW2, all of which were taken over by the communist state. In 1981, Kulczyk formed Interkupol, one of the first companies with foreign capital in Poland. In 1988 he established the Kulczyk Tradex company, which was the only official dealer of Volkswagen and Audi in Poland. The company's "big deal", which made Kulczyk one of the richest people in Poland, was a contract which sold more than 1000 vehicles to the Polish Police in 1992. The contract was given to Kulczyk Tradex without formal public tender, which was investigated later by the public prosecutors office.
In 1993 another company established by Kulczyk, Euro Agro Centrum, bought from the Polish government 51% of the Browary Wielkopolskie SA, one of the largest brewery companies in Poland. Euro Agro Centrum continued the participation in privatization of Polish brewery business, and actually (as of 2004) controls about 35% of the Polish beer market, holding the most popular Polish beer brands such as Lech, Tyskie and Zubr.
In 1991 Kulczyk created his largest company, Kulczyk Holding S.A., which specializes in massive capital operations between foreign investors and Polish state-owned companies. The company usually buys shares of privatized Polish companies, then resells the vast majority of them to foreign investors (such as in the case of TPSA and Warta SA). Formally, Jan Kulczyk is only CEO of this company. 78% of the shares belong to his wife, Grazyna Kulczyk; the rest belong to Kulczyk Privatsiftung, a foundation established by Grazyna and Jan Kulczyk, and registered in Austria. Kulczyk Holding S.A. and Euro Agro Centrum are closely tied and exchange the other companies' shares quite often. Both of them hold together the shares of 39 other prominent, still partially state-owned Polish companies such as PKN Orlen SA (the largest petroleum company in Poland, 4.99% of shares), TPSA (13.57%, the main telecommunication operator in Poland), Warta SA (24.61%, the second largest insurance company in Poland), PTE Dom SA (more than 50%), Skoda Auto Poland (more than 50%), Autostrady Wielkopolskie SA, Polenergia SA, Kompania Piwowarska SA, Mobitel, Polskie Odczynniki Chemiczne SA, and many others.
[edit] Investigation
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Jan Kulczyk is to be questioned by the parliamentary commission in the context of the PKN Orlen investigation (fall 2004). He missed the call to show up at the commission proceedings formally due to undergoing medical treatment in the US and then in London. The investigation commission proved that Jan Kulczyk had a secret meeting with Wladimir Alganov, a former KGB resident in Poland, on September 2004 in Vienna. Wladimir Alganov is actually a top ranking manager of Russia's Lukoil company. In a written statement Jan Kulczyk announced that he would like to be questioned abroad, as he feared for his safety in Poland. He expressed regret that politics makes it hard to do business in Poland, and that members of the commission engage in personal intimidation. In particular, he singled out Roman Giertych as a commission member who places "politics above the truth and the law". However, he has finally decided to come back to Poland, and to be questioned by the commission.
[edit] External links
- http://news.ft.com/cms/s/7f8c16aa-31f4-11d9-97c0-00000e2511c8.html - "Populist politicians are damaging the investment climate with their outbursts," Mr Kulczyk told the Financial Times. He said further that the attacks frightened Polish business people and scared off foreign investors, including multinational companies. This was really the lowest point in FT history. Many in Poland and overseas cancelled their subscriptions right away as there were concrete accusations of corruption and treason against Kulczyk, and FT became a forum for his defence. The Financial Times subscriptions decreased substantially in Poland after that publication, and is now practically nonexistent.
He is currently linked to be chairman at Southampton FC.
