News Parkiet

Corporate earnings

Earnings hurt by poor liquidity management

Polish corporate sector is being held back by the piles of cash sitting in low-margin current accounts. Local companies lost as much as 1.2 billion zloty last year by keeping their money in current accounts instead of term deposits. Market watchers say few Polish firms can afford to hire their own liquidity management staff.

Restaurants

AmRest IPO priced at 21-28 zloty

Fast food restaurant operator AmRest Holdings set its planned initial public offering of 8.2 million new and existing shares at 21 to 28 zloty per share. The company, which operates KFC and Pizza Hut chains in Poland and in the Czech Republic, could raise as much as 230 million zloty if the IPO is successful. AmRest itself will raise between 80 and 106.4 million from the offering.

Forwarding

Pekaes buys new trucks

Poland?s no. 1 trucking company, state-owned Pekaes has replaced part of its vehicle fleet, buying 79 new Renault, Volvo and Iveco trucks using the proceeds from last year?s initial public offering. Warsaw-based firm plans to spend almost 83 million zloty this year on acquisitions and other investments.

Privatization funds

NFI funds closer to stock buyback

Shareholders of three privatization funds controlled by CA IB Fund Management met last Friday to vote on a plan that would untangle mutual cross-holdings of NFI Progress, Drugi NFI and NFI im. E. Kwiatkowskiego. The funds say they plan to buy back shares held by minority shareholders at prices equal to their book value at the end of last year as soon as their auditor is done working on their financial statements.