News Parkiet

Privatization

PGNiG sets high IPO pricing range

Natural gas distribution monopoly, state-owned PGNiG set the range for its IPO yesterday, saying it would offer 900 million shares at between 2.46 and 2.98 zloty a share, a range much higher than most previous estimates. One of Poland?s biggest corporations in terms of sales, PGNiG could raise as much as 2.7 billion zloty from the offering that starts today. The company previously estimated it would sell shares worth around 1.5 billion zloty.

Equity analysts who follow the stock say the pricing range is ?disappointing?, but expect strong demand for PGNiG shares nonetheless. Stockbrokers trying to cash in on the IPO begun offering retail investors margin loans of up to ninety times the amount of their own equity, anticipating huge number of orders. Most say this year?s biggest privatization IPO to date will be ten to twenty times oversubscribed.

Information technology

Techmex to bid for army map-making

contract

Publicly traded Techmex IT group could win a 10-million zloty contract to make satellite maps of Belarus and Ukraine for AMW Army Procurement Agency. Techmex, which sells digital maps in addition to its portable hardware distribution business set up satellite data processing center together with AMW using the proceeds of last year?s IPO.

Textiles

Lentex to merge with

Tkaniny Techniczne

Carpet manufacturer Lentex SA announced yesterday it would merge with the wholly owned subsidiary Tkaniny Techniczne Pabianice in order to cut costs. TT Pabianice, a small but profitable company that pays Lentex several million zloty in dividends each year, makes artificial and cotton fiber used in construction and health care.

Separately Lentex named its chairman Piotr Gawryś, a former investment banker at Raiffeisen as the new chief executive officer.