News Parkiet

Equity markets

SEC to clean up pension fund management industry

Polish Securities and Exchanges Commission plans new regulations that would clean up the country?s pension and mutual fund industry, tarnished by recent accusations of price fixing and collusion by fund managers in several M&A deals. SEC?s Zbigniew Mrowiec says the regulator wants to avoid situations where fund managers meet after hours to ?plot takeover schemes over a beer?.

Food industry

Polish beer sales rose 1.43% last year

Polish beer sales rose 1.43 percent to almost 27 million hectoliters last year, major industry association said at a news conference yesterday. Export sales more than doubled to 350.000 hectoliters, Polish Association of Beer Industry Employers said.

Heineken?s Grupa Żywiec retained its no. 1 spot with 37 percent market share. Kompania Piwowarska, a joint venture between SABMiller and Kulczyk Holding took the second place with 36.4 percent, with Carlsberg Polska trailing in the third place. Danish group had 15 percent of the local market.

Utilities

WPEC may go public, CEO says

Legnica heating utility WPEC may list its shares on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in a privatization IPO, chief executive Krzysztof Chopcian said. EVIP Capital investment firm, which manages WPEC privatization process says the company could go public if it fails to attract ?satisfactory? bids by trade buyers.

WPEC operates in and around the town of Legnica in south-western Poland. It reported earnings of 6 million zloty in 2003. No sales figures were given.

Banking

Millennium to pay dividends

Bank Millennium SA, one of Poland?s top ten financial groups, announced six-fold spike in net earnings thanks to special gains on the sale of 10 percent stake in PZU insurance group yesterday. Millennium, which is part-owned by Banco Comercial Portugues, reported profits of more than 240 million zloty ($76 million) for fiscal 2004, up from just 41 million zloty two years ago. The bank said it would pay almost all of its earnings as dividends, the first such payment in four years.