News Parkiet

Chemicals

Russians out to buy Ciech chemicals trader

Russian ash soda producer RSK controlled by oligarch Wiktor Wekselberg may seek to buy government stake in Ciech chemicals trading group, sources told PARKIET this week. Polish Treasury Ministry has formally denied it has received RSK?s bid for its 36.7 percent, 300-million zloty stake in Ciech. However, sources suggest the Russian firm may be interested in Ciech to secure ash soda for Wekselberg?s car windshield factory planned near St. Petersburg.

Information technology

PC Guard plunges 95 pct. after trading halt

Shares of tiny software house PC Guard fell as much as 95 percent to 19.9 zloty in extremely heavy trading on Friday as the WSE resumed trading in the stock suspended earlier this week after a suspicious spike that drove thinly traded shares up more than 6600 percent. Some 315.600 shares of PC Guard representing 21 percent of outstanding stock changed hands.

Telecommunications

GTS completes Energis acquisition

Business telecommunications provider GTS Polska has completed its acquisition of the 97.5 percent stake in Energis, one of the country?s biggest fiber optics companies from National Grid Poland and private equity firm Bates Telecom Poland. The two firms won?t be folded into one, however, because Polish railways retains a 2.5 percent stake in the company. Energis and GTS are planning combined sales of some 376 million zloty, with 14.4 percent EBITDA margins. Jarosław Mikos, chief executive of GTS said he is on a lookout for other acquisitions, adding that state-owned DLD and fiber optics carrier would be the best fit for his company.

Personal savings

IKE accounts in doubt after new tax proposals

The future of IKE individual retirement accounts, which are exempt from capital gains taxes, is in doubt after prime minister designate Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz said he would push for the elimination of all capital gains taxes on individual investors. Mr. Marcinkiewicz said highly unpopular ?Belka?s tax?, named after the Finance Minister who put it in place three years ago, would be eliminated in 2007.

Venture capital

bmp sells Röntec stake

Germany?s bmp AG venture capital fund said on Friday it has sold its stake in Röntec AG microanalysis instrumentation company to a subsidiary of Bruker Biosciences for an undisclosed amount. An IR officer said bmp, whose shares are listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, posted ?satisfactory revenue and income? on the sale, adding that the fund has a policy of not disclosing specific terms of individual transactions.

Excluding Röntec, bmp?s portfolio includes stakes in nineteen technology, telecommunications and biotech start-ups.

Banking

Patience is a virtue at HSBC Bank Polska

Polish unit of HSBC says it will rely on organic growth to expand its modest market presence here, focusing mainly on consumer market segment. HSBC Bank Polska keeps a very low profile in Poland and doesn?t publish financial data about its operations here. Nonetheless, the company has seven retail branches in major Polish cities and a valuable relationship with Ikea, financing the purchases of furniture and other items marketed by the Swedish group. HSBC Bank Polska may start selling car and mortgage loans at some point in the time, company officials said.Retailing