News Parkiet

Equity markets

PO to push for blind trusts for politicians,

senators

Poland?s Civic Platform (PO), the country?s biggest opposition party and the most likely winner of this year?s elections says it will push for mandatory blind trusts for politicians, senators and senior government officials. Right now Polish politicians are free to invest their savings in stocks and other instruments as long as they file detailed annual statements showing their holdings.

Employees of the Warsaw Stock Exchange are subject to much more stringent rules and are not allowed to own any stocks at all. Interestingly enough, returns show several senior PO politicians themselves own substantial stock portfolios.

Food industry

Elstar Oils up 7 pct.

Shares of Canola oil maker Elstar Oils surged nearly 7 percent to close at 41.6 zloty, the highest since mid-February as investors discounted prospects of higher earnings from its new oil additives production plant in Malbork.

Elstar says it plans to increase production capacity of its main product, rapeseed oil, from 100 000 to 150 000 tons a year starting in 2006. It plans to spend PLN 35 million on new plant in Malbork on top of the 40 million zloty in paid to expand its facilities, chief executive Stanisław Rosnowski said.

Banking

Getin makes another acquisition

Wrocław-based Getin Holding, a publicly traded financial services group founded by Polish businessman Leszek Czarnecki, said it has signed a tentative agreement to buy a 99.9 percent stake in Wschodni Bank Cukrownictwa from a group of other major banks. It said it would pay as much as 210 million zloty for WBC once the deal is cleared by the anti-trust authorities and by KBC banking watchdog.

A small regional lender, WBC barely escaped bankruptcy several years ago when it was bailed out by other banks that preferred to save their ailing competitor rather than refund money to WBC customers as part of collective insurance scheme.