Combined ABG Ster-Projekt information technology group will focus its attention once again on bottom-line growth, instead of chasing after low-margin sales, chief executive Dariusz Brzeski told PARKIET in an interview recently. The merger between privately held ABG and Ster-Projekt, a public company is yet to be registered by the court, Brzeski said, but operationally the two IT firms are already working as one. Brzeski doesn?t foresee another round of job cuts at the new company after the merger. He notes that Ster-Projekt has already fired about 60 people last year.
ABG, which sells custom-made IT systems for the public services, including projects financed by the European Union, plans to utilize experience in military projects, data centers and networking accumulated by Ster-Projekt. The two firms are expecting at least 20 million zloty in earnings this year, Brzeski said.
Civil engineering
Polimex in talks to buy PRInż
Building contractor Polimex-Mostostal Siedlce says it wants negotiate a deal to buy 99 percent stake in Przedsiębiorstwo Robót Inżynieryjnych (PRInż), a Silesia, southern Poland-based road building company from shareholders deadlocked over company?s future prospects. Polimex said it has made an offer to buy almost all outstanding shares of PRInż, a mid-sized regional group from Sweden?s NCC and two major Polish shareholders, Bank Gospodarki Żywnościowej and Mostostal Zabrze construction group. However, any future deal to buy PRInż will be complicated by an ownership dispute between BGŻ, a creditor, and failing Mostostal Zabrze, which used to control PRInż.
Sources close to the situation say Polimex is offering less than 100 million zloty for PRInż compared with PLN 100-110 million offers for the company just two years ago. The company has since grown sales, to as much as 670 million zloty last year, but margins have shrunk to just 1 percent in 2004 versus just over 2 percentage points two years ago.
