* Poland counts on counter-bid for Enea
* RWE has until Oct 15 to place final bid
* Treasury to sell majority at Tauron in 2010
By Patryk Wasilewski and Pawel Bernat
WARSAW, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Poland is counting on other investors to step up and counter a bid from Germany's RWE in an ongoing sell-off of the only Polish listed utility Enea, a deputy treasury minister said on Friday.
Jan Bury told Reuters in an interview that the German utility, which is currently the sole bidder for a 67 percent stake in Enea, has until Oct 15 to place a final offer, and the whole transaction would take place this year.
"There might be counter bids and we even count on them to appear," Bury said. "Vattenfall could place an offer at any moment."
Vattenfall bought a nearly 19 percent stake in the Polish utility during its initial public offering in 2008 for $560 million but decided to pass on the opportuniy to grab a controlling stake.
However, after its German rival announced it had filed a preliminary bid for Enea, speculation appeared that Vattenfall might make a counter-offer.
Bury added that the ministry, in order to win over labour unions sceptical about the privatisation, wants any potential buyer to guarantee that it would buy out the employees' shares at the same price as the government's.
Enea employees are entitled to receive about 9 percent of the company, worth about 1 billion zlotys ($339.4 million).
"I am also convinced that Enea should remain a listed company," Bury added.
After the investor acquires a controlling stake, it will be forced to announce a tender for the remaining shares and the market expected the utility might be removed from public trade.
Bury reiterated the ministry expects to receive a premium on top of the current market price of 23 zlotys.
TAURON
The Enea sale might bring the most cash into state coffers this and next year, but the government also has to step up efforts on other companies in order to meet an ambitious goal of 35 billion zlotys in revenues by end-2010.
To meet the goal, the treasury wants to sell a bigger chunk of its second-largest utility Tauron next year and to forgo a majority stake in it while retaining control through voting rights limitations.
"We want to retain a controlling stake at Tauron, but that doesn't mean we will retain a majority. It will be less than 50 percent," Bury said. "We can have a stake similar to the one at PKN Orlen, there it works well."
The state owns about 27 percent of the refiner PKN Orlen, but has control over the company by limiting other shareholders' voting rights to 10 percent.
Bury expects the state could sell its Tauron stake during the initial public offering of the company, slated for mid-2010, when it will also issue new shares.
Tauron earlier said it aims for 4 billion zlotys from next year's issue of new shares. (Reporting by Patryk Wasilewski; Editing by Rupert Winchester)