Poland plans to float a stake in utility Energa by mid-2013

WARSAW Feb 13 (Reuters) - Poland plans to float a minority stake in Energa, its fourth-largest utility, by the middle of the year as part of a plan to raise 5 billion zlotys ($1.6 billion) this year from state asset sales, a deputy treasury minister said.

Poland decided to float a stake in Energa after regulators blocked a planned sale to another state utility, PGE, for 7.5 billion zlotys.

"I do not think we will go below a 50 percent stake in Energa," Pawel Tamborski told reporters on Wednesday. "In theory the initial public offering could include a new share issue, but there is no decision yet."

Earlier on Wednesday, state-controlled real estate group PHN debuted on the Warsaw bourse with a modest 3 percent gain.

For eight months of 2012, Energa's net profit amounted to 610 million zlotys, or 6 percent more than in the same period of 2011. ($1 = 3.1065 Polish zlotys) (Reporting by Agnieszka Barteczko; editing by Jane Baird)