News Parkiet

Privatization

Scientists battle Treasury over funding

Polish Science Foundation is going to court to force the Treasury Ministry to make the 282.2 million zloty payment as it claims some of the proceeds from last year's offering of PKO BP, the country's biggest bank. By law, the foundation is entitled to 2 percent of the funds raised from Treasury asset sales.

Mutual funds

SEC to register two new funds

Polish Securities and Exchanges Commission is expected to register two new mutual fund companies at today's meeting. The two include Investors TFI, a new firm set by several former asset managers and Intrum Justitia, which is seeking a license to sell a securitization fund that invests is unpaid debt.

Information Technology

Prokom wins another Post Office contract

Poland's no. 1 information technology group Prokom Software said it won a 72.4 million zloty contract to build a new IT system for the Polish Post Office. The deal may be expanded further, since it covers only a quarter of Poczta Polska's branches across the country and does not include hardware sales to state-owned monopoly.

Shares of Prokom Software have been gaining over the last few days on rumors that the company may be about to sign its first big contract in months. The stock closed at 104 zloty, up 0.48 percent from Friday's close.

Telecommunications

MNI sells fiber optic link

Multimedia content and value-added telecommunications services provider MNI SA said it has agreed to sell part of a fiber optic link connecting southern Poland with the Czech Republic to Tele-PERN for an undisclosed amount. MNI said the deal would add approximately 1.8 million zloty to its previous earnings estimate of 8 million zloty.

Transportation

PKP to pay back debts

PKP, the infamous Polish State Railways wants to repay some of its debts it owes to various municipalities across the country using the proceeds from the sale of Koksownia Przyjaźń metallurgical coke manufacturing plant. Heavily indebted PKP earned 562 million zloty selling its 37 percent stake in Przyjaźń to Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa, a state-owned coal group as well as other investors. The move has reduced PKP's overall debt to approximately 8 billion zloty.

Real estate

Arka REIT makes another investment

Arka Nieruchomości Real Estate Investment Trust, one of Poland's two publicly traded REIT funds is working on its fourth real estate project, a residential apartment complex in Cracow. The fund, which raised an estimated 350 million zloty in an IPO a year ago, has already made three other investments, outpacing Skarbiec Nieruchomości. A much smaller fund with less than 90 million zloty in assets, Skarbiec REIT has made just two investments so far, both residential projects in Warsaw and in the neighboring Piaseczno.