News Parkiet

Petrochemicals

Kulczyk group may have broken

securities laws, SEC says

Kulczyk Holding companies may have broken Polish securities regulations by not disclosing their stake in PKN Orlen oil refinery, Securities and Exchanges Commission said on Friday. An investment vehicle controlled by Polish businessman Jan Kulczyk, Kulczyk Holding said officially it owns 5.6 percent of PKN Orlen. Meanwhile, Kulczyk himself suggested in a private discussion with Zbigniew Siemiątkowski, the head of intelligence service, his stake may be worth much more, prompting an SEC investigation that begun in October 2004.

Petrochemicals

Grupa Lotos to start trading on June 9

Shares of Grupa Lotos oil refinery will start trading on the Warsaw Stock Exchange on June 9, chief executive Paweł Olechnowicz said on Friday. The company has raised just over a billion zloty ($300 million) selling 35 million shares priced at 29 zloty each. The offering was heavily oversubscribed by retail investors, while institutional buyers took a more cautious look at the company because of Lotos? pricing and valuation compared with its main local competitor, PKN Orlen.

Separately Olechnowicz said that Grupa Lotos may seek to buy Esso and Slovnaft gas station chains in Poland. In February ExxonMobil said it plans to sell its 39 gas stations here.

Information Technology

NTT System IPO delayed again

Computer hardware wholesaler NTT System is still planning to sell shares to the public despite yet another postponement of its IPO plans. Warsaw-based NTT, the country?s top computer distributor in terms of sales, initially said it would go public in early 2004.

The company has already hired a stockbroker, Internetowy Dom Maklerski to work on its IPO prospectus, but the offering was delayed at least three times. Founded sixteen years ago by two Poles and by Singapore businessman Davinder Singh Loomba, NTT System found no time to re-register as a joint-stock company, a prerequisite for corporations planning to go public in Poland.

The company reported lower than planned earnings in fiscal 2004 because of delays in Education Ministry IT procurement program and currency fluctuations. NTT said its profits totaled just 4 million zloty versus initial plans of 8 to 10 million. Sales reached 470 million compared with original estimates of PLN 550 million.

Media

Agora cut to ?hold? at CA IB

CA IB Securities has downgraded shares of Agora newspaper publisher to ?hold?, telling investors to switch to less expensive TVN television broadcaster. Equity analyst Andrzej Szymański has reiterated a ?buy? rating for TVN because they continue trading at a 10 percent discount to Agora.

He estimates TVN shares are worth 50 zloty each. That compares with Friday?s closing price of 46.8 zloty.

Szymański says he may upgrade Agora again if the advertising markets grows faster than his 10.3 percent estimate this year.

He expects Agora to report 1.2 billion zloty in revenues for all of 2005, up from previous estimates before the publisher posted better than expected first-quarter earnings and sales figures.

Auto parts

Variant announces IPO details

Car parts distributor Variant SA says it plans to raise about 13 million zloty in an IPO on the Warsaw bourse about three weeks from now. Kraków-based wholesaler of clamping rings and other auto parts said in its IPO documents it will offer between 0.5 and 1.3 million new shares, raising at least 6.7 million zloty to expand its production facilities and logistics.

?I?m hoping to sell shares at 10 zloty each, but we?ll see how much the market is willing to pay?, Variant executive Marek Leśniak told PARKIET recently.

Variant said previously the offering may be postponed until the summer holidays, but the company decided to go ahead with its IPO plans after Polish Treasury Ministry pulled its 1.5 billion zlVariant estimates it is Poland?s biggest distributor of clamping rings and accessories, with 40 to 50 percent market share. The company reported fiscal 2004 earnings of 3.7 million zloty sales of PLN 46 million.