News Parkiet

The economy

Poland needs more investments to extend economic recovery

Polish economy needs more corporate investments next year to maintain GDP growth and reduce double-digit unemployment rates next year, economists say. Corporate spending grew to 4.1 percent in the September quarter, trailing GDP expansion, which is estimated at 5.6 percent for all of 2004.

Publishing

Court limits Gierowski?s claims against WSiP

District court in Warsaw has issued a ruling that limits potential claims of Polish investor Hubert Gierowski against the publicly traded WSiP textbook publisher on Wednesday, sparking a minor rally in the company?s stock. The court rejected some of Gierowski?s claims against the publisher for the use of an office building in downtown Warsaw to PLN 32 million, less than half of the original amount of PLN 76.32 million plus interest.

Shares of WSiP rose 1 percent, closing at 9.85 zloty on the news. The stock surged as high as 10.2 zloty in intraday trading.

Financial services

Eurofaktor up 6.9 percent on IPO

Shares of Eurofaktor S.A., Poland?s no. 1 independent factoring services company rose 6.9 percent to close at 19.25 zloty on their first day of trading in Warsaw yesterday. Mysłowice, Silesia-based firm sold 36 million zloty worth of new stock in an IPO that closed earlier this month. It said initially it wanted to raise up to 50 million zloty to increase its highly leveraged portfolio of commercial receivables from corporate customers of Silesian steel plants and utilities..

On Wednesday Eurofaktor said it purchased 1.02billion zloty ($330 million) worth of receivables from its customers this year, an all-time record since the company entered financial services business back in 1996.

Equity markets

SEC launches another probe after Netia mishap

Polish Securities and Exchanges Commission begun another internal investigation to see if one of its staff profited from an incorrect announcement that sent investors scrambling to buy shares of Netia SA, a publicly traded local phone company. On December 17 the SEC said one of Netia?s board members bought 17 million zloty worth of shares and subscription warrants, causing the stock to go up 5 percent. Market regulator reversed itself after three days, saying that Netia?s director Nicholas Cournoyer transferred the stock to a holding company.

SEC now says the employee who transcribed Dec. 17 release may face criminal charges if the mistake was made deliberately.