News Parkiet

Equity market

Investment clubs fail to take off

Poland has no functioning investment clubs pooling money and know-how of individual investors despite official encouragement by the WSE and several stockbrokers. A few investment clubs did exist for a while a couple of years ago, but they all shut down because of legal obstacles.

Insurance

Polish insurers to invest PLN 200 million zloty abroad

Insurance firms registered in Poland plan to invest at least 200 million zloty abroad, a survey shows. They include CitiInsurance and Polish unit of France?s Cardif.

Banking

BZ WBK drops after 2Q earnings

Shares of Bank Zachodni WBK, an Allied Irish subsidiary, plunged 3.7 percent to close at 114.5 zloty yesterday after CEO Jacek Kseń warned investors its previous target to generate 20 percent Return On Equity would be ?difficult to achieve?. The bank, one of Poland?s top five or six commercial lenders, reported earnings of 161.6 million zloty, up 24 percent from last year.

However, BZ WBK?s lending portfolio shrunk 1.6 percent to PLN 14.5 billion compared with June 2004, with mortgage loans totaling just 1.85 billion zloty. More cautious than other domestic lenders, BZ WBK has adopted a policy of selling mortgage loans in Polish zlotys, rather than less expensive euro and Swiss franc mortgages.

Building materials

CSFB optimistic about Opoczno

Credit Suisse First Boston gave an ?outperform? rating on Opoczno, a major Polish ceramic tile manufacturer it used to own before Opoczno?s IPO in June. CSFB analyst Roger Collison set Opoczno?s target price at 68 zloty, more than 30 percent above yesterday?s closing price of PLN 51. The broker estimates Opoczno?s earnings this year at 84.7 million zloty, despite 1Q loss of PLN 1.9 million.