News Parkiet

Metals

WSE probes Złomrex deal with

key shareholder

Scrap metal dealer Złomrex SA has decided to change a controversial outsourcing contract with a company controlled by its founder after suggestions by Warsaw Stock Exchange authorities the deal could hurt its IPO prospects. Złomrex paid 7.8 million zloty last year to Przedsiębiorstwo Wiedza i Praca in return for accounting, cleaning, security and other services. Both firms are controlled by Częstochowa businessman Przemysław Sztuczkowski.

Sources close to the situation say WSE officials tried to convince Złomrex to scrap the deal, but Mr. Sztuczkowski said no. Instead, he said he would let future board member appointed by minority investors monitor the relationship between Złomrex and PWP.

Złomrex, a 1.4 billion zloty company, plans to go public in an IPO that starts on March 8.

Banking

BPH's profit surges in fourth quarter

on higher interest income

Bank BPH, Poland's third biggest lender by assets, said its profits rose four-fold in the fourth quarter driven by stronger revenue from banking fees and commissions.

Net income rose to PLN 199 million ($66.9 million) from PLN 51.9 million a year earlier, Bank Austria subsidiary said in a statement published yesterday. BPH's interest income rose 17.7 percent to 736.7 million zloty. Income from fees and commissions totaled 264.4 million zloty, up from 237 million a year ago.

At the same time cost to income ratio dropped 10.5 percent to just 53.3 percent.

Total lending at Bank BPH rose 10 percent in 2004 to 27.7 billion zloty, chief executive Józef Wancer said.

Banking

Staropolski'a assets go on sale

Creditors of failed Bank Staropolski, a Poznań-based lender that went under in late 1990's , have agreed to sell the company along with its 40.000 accounts. Court administrator who manages the sale estimates that Staropolski's assets, mainly its stake in Invest-Bank, are worth 95 million zloty. Because of Polish bankruptcy regulations, buyers, if any, will also have to repay 160 million zloty worth of Staropolski's debts.

Privatization funds

NFI Jupiter buys back shares

NFI Jupiter privatization fund gave almost 150 million zloty back to its shareholders buying 13 million shares at 11.5 zloty each, more than double its market price. One of fifteen privatization funds set up in mid-1995 to manage sale of state-owned firms, Jupiter now owns almost 50 percent of its equity.

Civil engineering

Budimex reports tiny profit

Shares of Budimex SA, Poland's no. 1 construction group and a component of WIG20 blue-chip index fell 2 percent to close at 50 zloty yesterday after the builder reported disappointing profits of just 757.000 zloty ($250.000) in 2004. Budimex, which is controlled by Spain's Grupo Ferrovial, posted earnings of more than 45 million zloty in 2003 when it sold its Warsaw head office.

Operating loss in 2004 totaled as much as 107.4 million zloty. The company blamed weak margins on construction projects denominated in euros that were only partly offset by hedging gains, as well as higher timber and steel prices for its performance.

Budimex said its sales were up less than 1 percent, totaling 2.16 billion zloty. Order backlog reached approximately 2.8 billion zloty.

Venture capital

MCI Management plans new investments

Publicly traded venture capital fund MCI Management plans at least five new projects this year, supplementing its portfolio of a dozen or so IT and Internet start-ups and restructuring plays, founder and chief executive Tomasz Czechowicz said at a conference yesterday. Wrocław-based MCI is negotiating sale of Process4E, a small IT consulting firm to an unnamed global company, Czechowicz said. It also plans to float one of its holdings, Travelplanet.pl online travel agency on the Warsaw bourse, marking MCI's first successful MCI said it is sill interested in Wirtualna Polska, Poland's no. 2 Internet directory. Wirtualna declared bankruptcy last year amidst shareholder dispute. The fund estimates the cost of Wirtualna's takeover at 36 million zloty or PLN 150 million, depending on whether its bankruptcy administrator decides to auction its assets on the open market.