News Parkiet

Ukraine

Polish companies may go to court over tax breaks

Various Polish corporations, including several companies whose shares are listed on the WSE, may go to court over Ukraine?s decision to eliminate tax breaks for businesses operating in special economic zones there. They say Polish government should intervene and step in to coordinate legal efforts to win compensation offsetting Ukrainian ax breaks.

Equity market

IDMSA.pl publishes customer data by mistake

Independent stockbroker IDMSA.pl published personal details of several clients over the Internet yesterday, using WSE?s regulatory news service, called ESPI. The company later apologized to its clients. Shares of IDMSA.pl are expected to start trading on the WSE today.

Equity market

DM BOŚ sees flat earnings this year

Stockbroker Dom Maklerski Banku Ochrony Środowiska is expecting 4.5 to 5 million zloty in earnings this year, chief executive Radosław Olszewski said at a news conference yesterday. A full service broker that is part of BOŚ bank group, DM BOŚ reported profits of 5.2 million zloty in 2004.

Sales in the six months to July were up 34 percent to 20.9 million zloty, Olszewski said, while return on equity nearly doubled to 26.5 percent.

DM BOŚ has retained its top spot as the biggest stockbroker on the futures market, with 19.6 percent market share. Its stake in equity trading averaged about 2.4 percent.

Banking

Fortis Bank Polska to hire more bankers

Polish unit of Fortis group reported 28 percent increase in 1H earnings to as much as 48.7 million zloty yesterday. Warsaw-based Fortis Bank Polska, a mid-sized lender that focuses on corporate financing and banking services for wealthy private clients, said its loan portfolio grew 11 percent from last year. The bank plans to hire about 100 new staff, adding to its 900 employees, Fortis officials said.

Building materials

PSB reports lower earnings, sales

Building materials wholesaler Polskie Składy Budowlane reported sharply lower revenues and earnings in the first six months of 2005. The company, whose corporate bonds are listed on CeTO over-the-counter market, said its sales fell 28 percent to just 285 million zloty from last year, when Poles stocked up on building materials before a VAT tax hike. Net earnings were down to less than 2 million zloty versus PLN 2.9 million in 2005.

Telecommunications

TP may report lower earnings, analysts say

Second-quarter earnings of Telekomunikacja Polska, Poland?s biggest local phone company may have declined to between 423 and 436 million zloty, analysts say. The company, which is due to release its earnings report today, posted 550 million zloty profit in the second quarter of 2004. Quarterly revenues are expected to fall to 4.46 to 4.54 billion zloty from last year?s PLN 4.6 billion ($1.35 billion).

Information technology

ABG Ster-Projekt surges on ARiMR deal

Shares of ABG Ster-Projekt information technology group surged as much as 10.8 percent yesterday to close at 8.2 zloty on news of the company?s biggest public contract in years, a 70.7 million zloty deal to deliver computer hardware to ARiMR agricultural agency. Privately held ABG, an independent company before the merger with publicly traded Ster-Projekt, used to work for ARiMR as the main contractor of Hewlett-Packard Polska, building an Integrated Administration and Control System to help the agency monitor spending on EU subsidies.

Separately, some 44 million newly issued shares of ABG Ster-Projekt are expected to start trading this Friday. New shares representing about 80 percent of outstanding equity and a similar voting stake were issued to shareholders of ABG in a reverse takeover earlier this year.

Information technology

Softbank rally continues

Shares of Softbank SA, a major Polish provider of IT and consulting services for the financial industry rose for the ninth time in as many days yesterday, closing at 33.9 zloty, up 2.7 percent. Analysts warn the rally, which begun when Softbank sold 33.6 million zloty worth of new shares to finance a small acquisition, won a tax refund and signed several high-margin contracts, may not last much longer. The stock is already trading higher than target prices set by most analysts.

Stockbrokers who follow Polish IT sector say the real test for Softbank will come when the company announces its second-quarter earnings sometime in August. Last year Softbank reported 2Q loss of 4.8 million zloty ($1.4 million) on 87.7 million zloty in sales.