Poles lined up at banks Friday to buy shares in the first five state-run companies to be privatized under the country's post-Communist economic reforms. A Western-style advertising campaign with sophisticated graphics tried to educate potential buyers on how the investments work, where to purchase shares and what risks to consider. ``Learn the power of your money,'' the advertisements say. Five companies, considered to be the better run and more efficient from the beleaguered socialized economy, are being privatized in the first round of economic reforms. They are the Krosno glass works, the Kielce construction company Exbud, the Lodz textile company Prochnik, a Silesian cable factory and Tonsil, an audio equipment company. Share prices ranged from 50,000 zlotys, about $5, to 112,000 zlotys, or $12. The minimum purchase was five shares. Ultimately, some 7,000 companies, accounting for more than 80 percent of the Polish economy, are to be transferred from state to private ownership or otherwise liquidated in the drive to create a capitalist economy and an investment market. Government economists devised complex systems for selling off the companies, reserving up to 20 percent of shares for workers at lower prices, retaining some for the state treasury and limiting the portion that can be purchased by foreigners. By late January, the shares will be allocated to buyers, although the shares will be held by the national banks until a stock market is created. At two Warsaw banks, 1,500 applications for the first offring were received by 3 p.m., with the average purchase put at 10 million zlotys, or about $1,050, state television reported. Oversubscription was expected for most of the companies, although uncertainty caused by the presidential campaign now under way and the financial pressure of the holiday season might limit sales, said Grzegorz Meza, an economist in the privatization ministry. ``This is the worst possible time,'' he said. ``But even if people are not experienced in investment, we think Poles will think this is going to be good business.''
