News Parkiet

Chemicals

BorsodChem to buy Ciech?s benzene unit

Hungarian polymer plastics manufacturer BorsodChem is negotiating a deal to buy Poland?s Petrochemia Blachownia, a benzene and ethylene unit of Ciech chemicals trading group. Sources close to the situation say the deal to buy Petrochemia, a company with 300 million zloty in annual sales, will be closed within two weeks. Ciech plans to use proceeds from the sale to finance acquisitions of soda ash producers in Poland and in Romania. Warsaw-based company said earlier it would seek to raise approximately 140 million zloty ($44 million) selling non-core assets, with Petrochemia accounting for most of that amount.

Steel industry

Stalprofil sees strong 3Q earnings

Shares of steel trader Stalprofil SA, a part of Mittal Steel group, rose 8.5 percent to close at 9.55 zloty on Friday, the highest in three months on news that its main shareholder may add to its 33 percent stake and stronger third-quarter earnings pre-announcement.

Silesia-based firm may buy other steel companies to consolidate its market position, chief executive Jerzy Bernhard said. Earlier this year Stalprofil took over privately held Izostal steel pipe manufacturer, buying shares of the company from ING BSK and other creditors.

Telecommunications

Multimedia IPO delayed by legal issues

Initial Public Offering of Multimedia Polska, one of Poland?s biggest cable TV companies, may be delayed at least until the second half of 2006, sources at the company told PARKIET recently. Multimedia, which operates cable systems in over 100 cities across Poland and has 500 000 cable TV and 130 000 phone subscribers, says it is waiting for an EU ruling that would allow conversion of telecommunications license fees into commitments to invest specific amounts of money in infrastructure.

Separately, sources at Multimedia said the company plans to lay off as many as 100 workers, or more than 10 percent of the existing workforce as part of the restructuring following the merger between Multimedia, originally a pure-play cable TV operator and regional phone company TeleNet.

Power industry

Remak bids for Opole public water system

Industrial welding company Remak SA said it has submitted the lowest bid for the expansion of Opole?s public water system, a project financed by the European Union. Publicly traded firm said it has offered to build water and sewage systems in several parts of Opole province for 117 million zloty, or 36.5 million dollars.

Also last week Remak said it was awarded a 16.5 million zloty contract at Pątnów II power block by SNC Lavalin.