News Parkiet

Petrochemicals

Orlen to restructure regional sales channel, cut jobs

PKN Orlen oil refinery told trade unions the company would have to reduce headcount as part of a plan to streamline its regional sales unit. Orlen, which has about a third of Poland's retail gasoline sales, said it would lay off 316 people at regional retail sales centers. Union activists threatened to go on strike if the company goes ahead with its plan to lay off workers.

Civil engineering

Hydrobudowa OK's sale to PBG

Shareholders of Hydrobudowa civil engineering group voted 'yes' to a planned 7.5 million zloty stock sale to PBG pipeline builder yesterday. Publicly traded PBG said it end up with a 55.5 percent stake in Hydrobudowa, regaining control of the firm it sold two years ago before it went public. At the time, Hydrobudowa, which specializes in water management projects, suffered serious financial problems and declining sales. Włocławek, central Poland-based company has since retained its financial balance and has more than doubled its sales to PLN 100 million last year.

It now has order portfolio of some 160 million zloty, chief executive Tomasz Starzak said.

PBG estimates this year's sales at PLN 335 million, with 8.9 percent profit margins.

Information Technology

Ster-Projekt CEO quits

Ster-Projekt co-founder Piotr Smólski announced late Wednesday he will step down as chief executive officer of the troubled information technology group. Mr. Smólski, who set up Ster-Projekt in 1986 and served as CEO since the year 2000, now says he will take a break to spend more time with his family before seeking another job. He will be replaced by Dariusz Brzeski, chief executive of ABG, a large, privately held software company that will merge with Ster-Projekt later this year.

Existing shareholders of ABG will own 72.6 percent of the combined company, to be called ABG Ster-Projekt.

Manufacturing

Tele-Fonika Kable swings back to profit

Tele-Fonika Kable, Poland's no. 1 industrial cable manufacturer reported fiscal 2004 earnings of more than 104 million zloty, reversing a loss of PLN 24 million a year earlier. Privately held company, which is controlled by local businessman Bogusław Cupiał, said its sales rose 23 percent to as much as 2.68 billion ($837 million).

Tele-Fonika Kable owns 70 percent of the Polish market.

Apparel

Vistula to launch stock option plan

Kraków clothing company Vistula SA said it would sell up to 210.000 shares at 30 zloty each over a three-year period to senior managers if the stock trades at an average of 40 to 50 zloty a share. Shares of Vistula, which makes men's suits and other designer clothes, closed at 32.3 zloty yesterday.

Manufacturing

Sanwil pulls offering

Fake leather manufacturer Sanwil SA said it has called off planned stock sale of up to 75 million new shares after it failed to close 30 million zloty deal to buy wood panel maker Hardex SA from 7 NFI privatization fund.

Shares of the company rose 6.7 percent on the news to close at 0.48 zloty on the news.

Banking

Three smaller banks may leave WSE

Three smaller and mid-sized banks may be delisted from the Warsaw Stock Exchange, following the footsteps of DB PBC, a local unit of Deutsche Bank. Market regulators, the SEC and KNB, Poland's Banking Supervisory Commission are unlikely to try to block attempts to take private DZ Bank, Fortis Bank and Nordea Bank Polska by their owners. Each has a free float of 5 percent or less.

Information Technology

I&B System plunges to sixteen-month low

Shares of Invar & Biurosystem, a small IT services company and ERP system distributor from central Poland fell 2.2 percent to 0.9 zloty, closing at their lowest since November 2003 yesterday.

The stock fell more than 60 percent since its high of 2.6 zloty in March of 2004.He says that investors don't give enough credit to I&B System, even though the company is doing better than last year and expects stronger sales in 2005.

'We are hiring new people and paying our bills on time', Mr. Kruszek said, noting that it still has to pay several hundred thousand zloty each quarter to creditors.