News Parkiet

Personal savings

Swiss-based firm raises money

for mystery investment

Bielsko-Biała financial services distributor Novision sells is advertising high-interest loans for a Swiss firm that says it invests the money in high-yield US T-bills. Novision chief executive Mariusz Stefan says his firm does sell an investment product with a guaranteed, 12 percent annual yield but admits that he has no idea how Tourex, the Swiss firm, invests his clients? money.

Financial markets

French ?no? vote unlikely to lead

to financial crisis

French rejection of EU constitution is unlikely to have a lasting impact on new members of the European Union, economists say. Currency and bond traders expect some short-term weakness next week if the treaty is rejected in a referendum on Sunday. However, most say the market has already discounted negative scenario since French opponents of the treaty have long outnumbered supporters of EU constitution.

Petrochemicals

Lotos employee shares to hit the

market on June 10

At least some of the more than 11.5 million shares of Grupa Lotos refinery given out to company employees are expected to hit the market when the stock begins trading on or around June 10, brokers say. Dom Inwestycyjny BRE Banku, which handles Lotos IPO, says it has registered a number of employee-held shares, but won?t say how many citing confidentiality requirements.

Lotos employees reportedly sold shares at 25 zloty each in curb trading recently. The company and its main shareholder, Nafta Polska privatization agency plan to sell shares at between 26 and 35.5 zloty each.

Retailing

Home appliance retailer

Neonet to go public

Wrocław-based home appliance and home electronics retailer Neonet plans to go public in a few months, chief executive Marek Majewski told PARKIET this week. Neonet has already filed its IPO prospectus with the Securities and Exchanges Commission, Majewski said. The company plans to raise money for expansion. Neonet, which focuses on smaller towns with less than 200 000 residents, owns 118 retail outlets across Poland. An additional 236 stores are run by franchise-owners, Neonet says. The group estimates it has an 8 percent market share.

Investing

Brokers report rising income from

mutual fund fees

Polish stockbrokers, led by CDM Pekao SA are reporting higher income from sales of mutual funds. Once a marginal activity for most brokerage houses, mutual fund fees contributed, by one estimate ?tens of millions of zlotys? to their revenues. Brokers only got seriously into mutual fund business after the introduction of 19 percent capital gains tax several years ago, when the industry took off growing at double-digit rates as more people sought to shelter their income from the taxman. One brokerage house, Bank BPHs Biuro Maklerskie BPH says mutual fund fees represented about 10 percent of total sales last year. The biggest gainer, CDM Pekao SA sold about 3 billion zloty ($900 million) worth of mutual funds last year, up to a quarter of the total by the brokerage industry as a whole.

Insurance

More insurers buy out minority investorsThree privately held insurance firms squeezed out their minority shareholders last year as a prelude to either selling or winding up their business. In one such deal, KBC group?s Warta property insurer bought less than 2 percent stake in Agropolisa, a niche insurance company specializing in farming and food processing only to shut down its insurance business according to data published by industry regulator KNUiFE. In another minority squeeze-out, Denmark?s Tryg Forsikring bought 2.46 percent stake in local subsidiary, Tryg Polska Towarzystwo Ubezpieczeń, selling the company months later to Hanover, Germany-based HDI International Holding, possibly because Tryg Polska failed to reach 4 percent market share planned by the Danish firm. In a third deal, Italy?s Toro Targa Assicurazioni bought 0.06 percent stake in Benefia TUnŻ life insurer. Industry watchers now say Toro Targa will sell Benefia to a bigger insurance group.