News Parkiet

Equity markets

Prosecutor questions SEC charges

Warsaw district attorney refused to launch an investigation into an alleged attempt to scuttle last year?s IPO by commercial radio broadcaster Broker FM saying that regulations on stock manipulation only apply to trading on the secondary market. The SEC has asked prosecutors to investigate negative reports about Broker FM produced by senior government official and by CR Media Consulting, a company with ties to a competing radio station.

Broker FM had to cut the size of its IPO, pricing the offering at the bottom of initial range.

Insurance

PZU should go public as soon as possible, chairman says

Powszechny Zakład Ubezpieczeniowy is ready for an IPO and could go public on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in as little as three months, new chairman said in an interview with PARKIET recently. Aleksander Chłopecki, an independent candidate accepted both by the Polish government and by Eureko insurance group says PZU, Poland?s biggest insurance firm, should be listed as soon as possible.

Automotive industry

Variant to start trading on Monday

Shares of auto parts and car cosmetics distributor Variant SA are scheduled to start trading on the WSE this Monday, company officials said confirming previous WSE announcement. Chief executive Leszek Kołodziej is expecting the stock to trade at a premium from last month?s IPO price of 10 zloty a share.

Food industry

Ambra buys another wine distributor

Poland?s no. 1 wine importer Ambra said it has agreed to pay 11.72 million zloty for a 50 percent equity stake in TiM, a smaller importer of classic wines. Ambra, which went public last month after a 60 million zloty IPO said that TiM, a 50.1 million zloty company in terms of sales will retain a separate distribution network. Ambra itself is expecting sales of 365 million zloty in the twelve months to June 30.