News Parkiet

Information Technology

Comp to sell minority stake

to another IT group

Encryption device manufacturer Comp S.A. from Warsaw may sell 25 percent stake originally intended for IPO investors to an unnamed Polish IT company. Comp said earlier it would try to raise up to 45 million zloty selling one million new shares in an IPO scheduled for December 16.

Sources at Softbank S.A., the most likely candidate to buy new shares of Comp deny the company is taking about possible acquisition. However, Comp and Softbank are already working together on CEPiK car registry.

Banking

Rabobank seeks control over BGZ

Rabobank International wants to take majority stake in Poland?s Bank Gospodarki Żywnościowej, deputy chief executive Wouter Kolff said yesterday.

The Dutch say that BGZ, which until recently was run by Polish cooperative banks, could still list its shares on the Warsaw Stock Exchange because of ?political factors?.

WSE listing may include up to 35 percent of BGZ now held by the government.

Building materials

Polcolorit drops 5.3 pct. on IPO

Shares of Polcolorit ceramic tile maker fell 5.3 percent from their IPO price of 4.3 zloty on the first day of trading yesterday as retail investors dumped massive amounts of the stock. Polcolorit, of Piechowice near Jelenia Góra closed at 4.07 zloty valuing the entire company at 304 million zloty ($97 million).

?We were hoping for a better debut?, general manager Wiktor Marconi said. ?However, my goal is to increase the value of Polcolorit over medium to long-term and this will be reflected in higher market value of Polcolorit over time?, he added.

Venture capital

bmp sells new shares in cross-border offering

Venture capital fund bmp AG sold 5 million shares in a secondary offering in Poland and in Germany earlier this week, raising an estimated 9.6 million euros for new projects. The fund tried to sell as many as 7.5 million shares, but no Polish institutional investors subscribed for new stock. Retail investors from Poland signed up for 1.8 million shares at 2.11 euros each.

Shares of bmp will start trading in Warsaw on December 16.

The fund already owns stakes in two Polish Internet companies. It said it may use some of the proceeds from this week?s offering to invest in other new economy stocks here and in Germany.

Equity markets

Stock brokers restrict spending

on new IT systems

Polish brokerage houses say they are not planning major IT upgrades anytime soon to handle increasing number of new brokerage accounts, industry sources say. Most brokers have enough capacity left after spending millions on new computers and backoffice systems during previous WSE rally five years ago. The market for brokerage IT systems in Poland is divided between three major information technology groups, Prokom Software, Poland?s no. 1 IT services group, ComputerLand SA, second largest computer company and ComArch software house.

Chemicals

Siarkopol to sell small stake

in Ciech trading group

Former sulfur mine Siarkopol S.A. has published a newspaper announcement offering a small stake in Ciech chemicals trading group in a pre-IPO sale earlier this week. It said it expects at least 5.15 million zloty ($1.6 million) for its 1.5 percent stake in state-controlled Ciech based on that company?s book value.

Siarkopol canceled the auction on Thursday because the sale through newspaper announcement may be illegal under Polish securities regulations. It says it expects to sell its 304.250 shares of Ciech after the company goes public sometime next month.

Automatic controls

Final countdown for Manometry

Shares of Kujawska Fabryka Manometrów pressure gauges maker will be delisted from the Warsaw Stock Exchange within two weeks after an SEC clearance to take the company private. Germany?s Wika Systems hPolish Securities and Exchanges Commission is investigating a possible ?pump and dump? scheme after an unexplained surge of Manometry?s shares from 10 zloty to PLN 149 earlier this year.