News Parkiet

Banking

UniCredito still not cleared

for Polish merger

Alessandro Profumo, the CEO of UniCredito Italiano left empty-handed yesterday after meeting with top officials from Poland's Banking Supervisory Commission in an attempt to secure clearance for the merger between its Polish unit, Pekao and HVB-controlled Bank BPH, sources close to the situation said. Although there were no official comments after yesterday's meeting, sources say Polish market watchdog is reportedly pushing for the sale of BPH to another investor.

Telecommunications

Jupiter sells stake in Pro Futuro

Privatization fund NFI Jupiter has agreed to sell its majority stakes in two telecommunications companies to Dutch data carrier Linx Telecommunications for an estimated 32 million zloty. One of fourteen privatization funds listed on the WSE, Jupiter initially invested as much as 140 million zloty in fixed wireless carrier Pro Futuro and dataCOM, a small voice carrier based in Warsaw's Ursus district. The fund has already written off much of its investments in the two firms, both made at the height of the Internet frenzy.

Pro Futuro and dataCOM reported combined nine-month sales of approximately 60 million zloty. Smaller dataCOM posted before-tax profit of PLN 0.73 million, while Pro Futuro reported before-tax loss of approximately 2.4 million zloty.

Shares of the fund, listed on the WSE since mid-1990?s, fell 1.77 percent to close at 2.78 zloty yesterday as investors sold off the stock disgusted with Jupiter?s performance. The fund now trades at a 25 percent discount to its NAV.

Civil engineering

Mostostal Płock to trade

ex-dividend today

Shares of Mostostal Płock civil engineering group are expected to drop sharply at the opening of today's session after the record date for an extraordinary, 7.5 zloty dividend payable in mid-December. Based on yesterday's closing price of 26.4 zloty, Mostostal had a dividend yield of 28.4 percent before today's sell-off.