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(Bloomberg) — Polish companies are increasingly pressing ahead with expansion plans in neighboring Ukraine, shrugging off a recent diplomatic row between Warsaw and Kyiv.
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State development bank BGK SA has seen a growing demand for funding of mature infrastructure and energy projects from local firms in recent months, according to Deputy Chief Executive Officer Marta Postula.
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“The entrepreneurs are coming back to us and currently the pipeline of projects is even bigger,” Postula said in an interview during the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Gdansk last week. “It means they have done the market reconnaissance, they also often have a Ukrainian partner and they have knowledge about energy and infrastructure projects.”
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The corporate push contrasts sharply with a spat over World War II history that erupted last month. The fallout culminated in Polish President Karol Nawrocki stripping his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, of the country’s highest state honor and prompted Zelenskyy to skip the Gdansk summit.
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Yet for businesses vying for a slice of what the World Bank estimates will be a $524 billion postwar reconstruction effort, political friction is taking a back seat.
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“We’re just doing business and during the meetings nobody mentioned politics,” she said. “Everybody’s looking at numbers.”
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Corporate Pacts
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BGK, Poland’s equivalent of Germany’s KfW Group, serves as a go-to institution for funding local companies through preferential loans, trade support tools and participation in the European Flagship Fund for the Reconstruction of Ukraine.
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Last year, a contact point launched by the lender gathered initial project proposals worth between 500 million zloty ($134 million) and 600 million zloty. Now, backed by a new €195 million ($223 million) financing guarantee with the European Commission, Polish firms are returning with concrete proposals.
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Postula expects the first financing agreements for energy investments, such as biogas facilities, to be signed soon, adding that the final Polish corporate involvement will likely exceed those initial estimates.
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Early entrance is seen as a key advantage. During the Gdansk conference, Ukraine signed 160 agreements with global partners worth more than €10 billion to support its economy, defense, and infrastructure.
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Polish firms are maneuvering to secure contracts. Construction companies Budimex SA, Polimex-Mostostal SA and state-owned AMW Sinevia have agreed to cooperate on infrastructure bids, while government-controlled utilities PGE SA, Tauron Polska Energia SA, Enea SA and Energa SA have signed a similar pact for energy projects.
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Elsewhere, oil company Orlen SA is strengthening cooperation with Ukraine’s Naftogaz, while PZU SA has already bought the neighboring country’s biggest life insurer.
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