News Parkiet

Equity markets

Poland may sell 75 pct. stake in WSE

Polish government should sell 25 percent stake in the Warsaw Stock Exchange to another European bourse, Treasury Ministry?s privatization adviser said in a recent report. Under the proposal, Poland would retain 25 percent stake in the exchange, while the remaining half would be offered in a privation IPO, split equally between institutional and retail investors.

Information technology

ComputerLand buys assets

of e-government IT firm

Poland?s no. 2 information technology group ComputerLand SA said it has agreed to pay an undisclosed amount for software licenses and computer programmers of Efekt Software, a small software house specializing in e-government applications. The company estimates that in two or three years municipal governments in Poland will be spending 200 million zloty a year on new IT projects and wants to capture a foothold on the emerging market with the new acquisition, chief executive Michal Danielewski said.

Warsaw-based ComputerLand has used a similar strategy before, buying CIE, a tiny software house with extensive experience with power industry customers to enter new market segments.

Working on its own, ComputerLand has already won a 17-million zloty contract to design and build e-government infrastructure for the municipal authorities in Lodz, Poland?s second largest city.

Building materials

Polcolorit cuts earnings forecast

Ceramic tile manufacturer Polcolorit SA cut its full-year revenue and earnings forecast, admitting it won?t be able to meet the numbers after weaker than expected sales over the summer. A mid-sized company from south-western Poland, Polcolorit said it expects revenues of just 86.5 million zloty vs. previous estimate of PLN 104.1 million and below last year?s 92 million zloty in sales. Earnings estimate came down to just 15.4 million zloty from last year?s PLN 16.1 million. Polcolorit said earlier it expects profits of more than 20 million zloty. First-half sales were lower by a third, but Polcolorit remained confident about its earnings forecast up until its second-quarter earnings report, published in mid-August.

Two other big ceramic tile makers, Opoczno and Ceramika Nowa Gala have reduced their earnings estimates recently. Shares of all three are well below their IPO prices - Opoczno lost over a quarter of its market value since it went public in June, while Polcolorit is trading below 2.5 zloty a share, some 40 percent below last December?s IPO price. Nowa Gala gave back all of its gains since last year?s successful IPO and is now trading about 14 percent below its offering price of 5 zloty a share.

Telecommunications

MNI up on news of Pilicka acquisition

Shares of telecommunications group MNI rose 2.33 percent to close at 4.4 zloty yesterday on news of pending acquisition of Telefonia Pilicka, a regional phone company from US investors. D&E Communications, an eastern Pennsylvania based carrier said MNI has agreed to pay as much as 15.75 million dollars for Pilicka. Sources at Telefonia Pilicka wouldn?t comment on the deal.