News Parkiet

Equity markets

WSE planning five IPOs this month

Warsaw Stock Exchange is expecting as many as five new companies to go public in July, an all-time record for the typically slow summer period. This month?s IPO candidates include online travel agency Travelplanet.pl, scheduled to start trading on Friday, auto parts distributor Variant SA, which plans a market debut next Monday, Police fertilizer plant, tiny Warsaw cable TV operator Spray and home appliance and home electronics retailer Neonet SA.

A total of 19 Polish companies went public on the WSE in the six months to July. The bourse is expecting at least 30 IPOs this year. In 2004 some 36 new companies begun trading on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

Retailing

LPP not worried about import quotas

Clothing retailer LPP has reiterated this year?s earnings forecast despite last month?s agreement between EU and China that sets new import quotas. Gdańsk-based LPP which runs hugely popular ?Reserved? clothing chain, says it expects 60 million zloty in earnings of 750 million zloty in sales. It also says it has limited imports from China to 67 percent of items sold last year compared with 84 percent in 2003.

Information technology

Softbank offering oversubscribed,

CFO says

Information technology provider Softbank SA sold 33 million zloty worth of new shares in an offering that closed June 28, chief financial officer told PARKIET recently. Part of Prokom Software IT group, Softbank says part of the offering open to all investors was ?several times oversubscribed?.

Information technology

Oracle sales in Poland rose 14 pct.

Polish unit of Oracle Corporation reported sales of more than 330 million zloty in the fiscal year ending March 31, chief executive of Oracle Polska said. Revenues were up 14 percent from the previous year, boosted by the sale of software licenses to Polish Finance Ministry and ARiMR agricultural agency, Paweł Piwowar said.