POLAND: PKP Cargo filed amended arrangement proposals with the Warsaw district court on 15 September. Three of six creditor groups are offered a share of any payout from the state-controlled operator’s PLN 1.52bn damages claim against the state. A separate court suspended that case again the same day.
The filing is part of the company’s court-supervised restructuring (sanacja). It keeps the division of creditors into six groups and the main terms of the version submitted in June.
The new element is a mechanism the company calls additional satisfaction (Dodatkowe Zaspokojenie), funded by money PKP Cargo might receive from the state over coal transports the government ordered in 2022. The court case was resumed and suspended again on 15 September while the company and the state negotiate a settlement.
How the coal mechanism works
PKP Cargo will pass on 50% of any money it finally receives from the state treasury, net of public-law charges and the direct costs of the case. The money is shared pro rata among groups I, III and IV – tax creditors, banks and larger trade creditors, and state-controlled railway companies. No creditor can recover more than its original claim, and the mechanism runs until 31 December 2036 or until the claim is finally settled.
Management board vice-president Paweł Miłek said acting jointly with creditors to enforce the claim could speed up and enlarge any payout, leaving the company better off even after sharing it.
The claim amounts to PLN 1,522,424,000, roughly EUR 351m, over a 2022 decision by then prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki that required PKP Cargo to carry coal imported by state-owned PGE Paliwa and Węglokoks. PKP Cargo sued the state treasury on 23 December 2025. State-owned PKP SA holds 33.01% of PKP Cargo’s capital, so the state sits on both sides of the case.
What each creditor group is offered
According to the company’s statement, the proposals cover the principal of the claims as follows:
Group I, tax claims – 75% repaid, with access to the coal mechanism.
Group II, trade creditors owed up to PLN 50,000, roughly EUR 11,500, and leasing companies – 100% repaid.
Group III, banks, financial institutions and larger trade creditors – 50% repaid, with access to the coal mechanism.
Group IV, state-controlled railway companies – 50%, settled by conversion into new series D shares, with access to the coal mechanism.
Group V, social insurance institution ZUS – 100% of principal and ancillary claims.
Group VI, PKP Cargo group companies and other creditors – 5% repaid.
Interest and ancillary claims are written off in every group except ZUS. Basic payments fall due within 12 months of the month in which final court approval is announced.
Other parties to the proceedings have until 15 October to submit their own proposals, and the creditors’ council is to give its opinion by the same date, the judge-commissioner has ruled. PKP Cargo had asked at the end of August for more time to file its own proposals.
A separate arrangement at wagon maintenance subsidiary Cargotabor is further along. Creditors backed it at the end of August, and the judge-commissioner has confirmed the result, PKP Cargo said on 10 September. The restructuring court must still approve it.