News Parkiet

Energy

Poland postpones PGNiG sale

Polish government has postponed planned privatization IPO of the Polish Oil and Gas Company (PGNiG) just hours after the country's biggest natural gas supplier published its IPO prospectus yesterday, citing unfavorable market conditions and 'political tensions surrounding the company'. Treasury Minister Jacek Socha said that PGNiG may go public later this year, possibly in early September.

PGNiG, one of Poland's top five corporations in terms of sales, said it would seek about 1.5 billion zloty selling 900 million new shares. The company has already decided to split the offering into three tranches of 270 million shares each, allocated to Polish retail investors, local pension funds and other institutions and international investors. The other 90 million shares would be set aside for sale as part of the three tranches, depending on the demand.

Analysts say Jacek Socha's decision removes stock overhang threatening smaller privately-held companies that plan to list their shares on the WSE. Possibly the biggest beneficiary, Opoczno ceramic tile maker plans to raise as much as 1 billion zloty selling several million existing shares in an offering that begun Thursday.

Separately, Socha said he will seek a bigger dividend payment from KGHM Polska Miedź, the country's no. 1 copper producer part-owned by the Polish government. Union-dominated KGHM has decided to pay just 100 million zloty from last year's PLN 1.4 billion profit to shareholders.

Civil engineering

Naftobudowa to raise new equity

Kraków-based Naftobudowa, a small building contractor specializing in petrochemical industry projects says its financial troubles are over. Its creditors have already agreed to postpone debt repayments totaling 19 million zloty and the company itself has restructured its operations shedding unprofitable subsidiaries and closing down low-margin general civil engineering business. Naftobudowa says it expects to raise about 15 million zloty in an offering scheduled tentatively for the second half of this year, raising money for the purchase of new equipment to replace obsolete machines. The company recently won oil industry contracts in France, Finland and the Netherlands, reducing its dependence on deals in German, traditionally one of Naftobudowa's main markets.

Pulp & paper

KPPD surprised by trading activity

Chief executive of KPPD sawmill operator says he is surprised by recent trading activity in his company's stock on MTS-CeTO over-the-counter market. Longin Graczkowski attributes this week?s surge to as much as 20.8 zloty yesterday to unsubstantiated media rumors about KPPD's plans to switch from OTC exchange to the regular market. Employee-owned company is in reasonably good shape, though. Graczkowski says KPPD, which runs a dozen sawmills in north-western Poland, reported earnings of 7.6 million zloty on sales of PLN 212 million last year First quarter earnings fell by two-thirds, however, because of higher timber prices and unfavorable currency movements, Graczkowski says. Mr. Graczkowski along with other workers owns almost half of KPPD shares through employee-owned holding company called Drembo.

Venture capital

MCI buys a stake in online appliance store

Publicly traded venture capital fund MCI Management has made yet another acquisition yesterday, buying a 63 percent stake in a small Internet start-up. Wrocław-based MCI has agreed to pay 800.000 zloty for a stake in Hoopla.pl, an online home appliance store. MCI's Tomasz Czechowicz says the fund hopes to turn Hoopla.pl into Poland's no. 1 electronic retailer selling home electronics, home appliance products and computer hardware a few years from now. Founded in September 2004, Hoopla.pl is planning sales of about 3 million zloty this year. The company estimates this revenue level would give it about 4 percent share of the highly fragmented market