News Parkiet

Equity markets

SEC blocks surprise move to buy Zelmer

Enterprise Investors private equity fund reportedly sought and failed to obtain clearance of the Polish SEC to buy a 25 percent stake in Zelmer home appliance manufacturer even before the stock begun trading on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, sources told PARKIET yesterday. EI, which bought 24.93 percent of Zelmer in an IPO that closed Monday, says it is ready to offer a small premium to the company?s 12.9 zloty offering price if bid goes ahead. It says it will ask once again for regulatory clearance to add to its stake in Zelmer.

Zelmer?s IPO was 75 times oversubscribed by retail investors, who tried to buy shares worth 4.86 billion zloty ($1.56 billion). More than 37.000 investors signed up for the stock.

Food processing

Graal priced at low end of IPO range

Canned fish manufacturer Graal SA priced its initial public offering of 1.67 million common stock at 15 zloty per share for a total of 25 million zloty, or 8 million US dollars. The company initially said it would offer new stock at between 15 and 17 zloty, depending on the demand and blamed poor situation on the WSE and low valuation of its only publicly traded competitor, Wilbo SA for the decision to sell shares at the bottom of its IPO range.

Wejherowo, northern Poland-based Graal says it will use 9.5 million zloty from its IPO proceeds to buy Syrena Royal fish processing plant. Part of the rest will be spent on a canned tuna fish joint venture with an unnamed Spanish firm.

Thanks to these investments and acquisitions Graal estimates its 2005 earnings at 7.4 million zloty compared with less than 4 million last year. The company expects 23 percent increase in sales to PLN 184 million.

Equity markets

Matrix.pl, Zetkama cleared for IPO

Polish Securities and Exchanges Commission has agreed to IPO plans of Matrix.pl software house and Zetkama industrial fittings manufacturer yesterday.

Warsaw-based Matrix.pl plans to sell over 400.000 shares, half of which belong to Swiss investment fund Brewi Consulting offering about a quarter of company?s stock to the public. Best known as the maker of Symfonia accounting software, Matrix.pl reported sales of 96 million zloty in fiscal 2003/2004. Profits totaled 7.8 million zloty.

Zetkama from south-western Poland says it will offer 2.55 million new and existing shares sold by the company and by Riverside, a US private equity fund. Based on previous news reports, its IPO may be worth around 30 to 40 million zloty.

Zetkama netted 2.2 million zloty on sales of PLN 55 million in the nine months to October last year.

SEC spokesman Łukasz Dajnowicz says the SEC is now working on IPO prospectuses of ten new firms planning to list their shares on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

Engineering

Energomontaż wins contract with Aker Stord

Energomontaż-Północ has signed a 3.26 million euro contract to sell pipeline components to Norway?s Aker Stord, the second major deal with the refinery in recent months. Sources close to the situation say Warsaw company is negotiating similar contracts with customers in France.

Real estate

Hungarian developer to build small city

in Katowice

Hungarian property developer TriGranit Development Corporation plans to build a 600 million euro Silesia City Center, a huge, multi-functional commercial and residential project in the southern city of Katowice, the capital of Upper Silesia province. TriGranit, which is backed by AIG New Europe Fund and by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, says SCC?s first stage, an 80.000 square meter shopping center will open as early as November. The group plans a total of ten similar projects in major Polish cities.

Manufacturing

Śrubex provides earnings guidanceMetal fasteners manufacturer Śrubex SA says it expects slightly lower earnings compared with last year?s figures that were boosted by one-time gains due to inventory re-pricing and special F/X gains. Śrubex, which is planning a 30 to 40 million zloty IPO in early February, estimates its fiscal 2005 earnings at 11.5 to 12.5 million, down from last year?s PLN 12.9 million.