News Parkiet

Media

TVN goes public

Grupa TVN, the owner of Poland?s second largest private TV station operating under the same name, received SEC clearance to go public on Friday. TVN shareholder, Grupa ITI multimedia holding, said it plans to sell up to 26.3 million shares of its TV company, or 40 percent of the total. TVN itself won?t be selling any new shares.

ITI chief executive Jan Wejchert says his company plans to raise up to 150 million dollars selling part of its stake in TVN, implying that the entire company might be worth at least 1.1 billion zloty.

TVN might be an interesting stock because of its size and strong franchise, Polish stockbrokers said on Friday. Most add they?ll wait for more details before commenting on what might be this year?s biggest stock sale by a non-government owned company.

For now, the only media stocks listed in Warsaw are Agora newspaper publisher and Broker FM, which owns the country?s biggest private radio station RMF FM, as well as two new media companies and two small book publishers.

Taxes

PKO BP interest is tax-deductible,

Finance officials say

Polish investors can offset future capital gains taxes with interest on margin loans to buy shares of PKO BP, Ministry of Finance told PARKIET on Friday. Tens of thousands of Poles took loans of up to half a million zloty each to sign up for shares of state-owned bank, paying several hundred zloty in interest and commissions.

In January Poland started levying 19 percent tax on all stock market gains.

By April 30 all investors will have to file special PIT-38 tax form, showing how much they have made in the preceding year.

Civil engineering

Mostostal Zabrze settles with ING Bank Śląski

Near-bankrupt building contractor from Silesia, Mostostal Zabrze Holding, has made a deal to repay outstanding debts owed to ING Bank Śląski, Polish unit of ING Groep. Mostostal, which used to be part of WIG20 blue-chip index in late 1990?s, said it has agreed to pay back 6 million zloty over a period of four years. ING has agreed to forgive another 3 million zloty in interest and principal.

Mostostal is trying to negotiate similar deals with other key creditors, including Citigroup?s Bank Handlowy. Mostostal owes Handlowy some 15.5 million zloty.

Mostostal, which is officially bankrupt, has already filed for protection from other creditors.

Utilities

Praterm goes public

Regional public utility holding Praterm SA plans to raise as much as 100 million zloty in an IPO later this year, chief executive Edward Kowalewski told PARKIET in an interview recently. Warsaw-based group, which already owns ten mid-sized heat generating plants and one heat and power generating facility, wants to use the proceeds to buy and restructure other local utility companies.

Polish SEC has already cleared the IPO and Praterm is expected to publish its final, short-form prospectus within days.

Founded in 1995, Praterm reported six-month earnings of PLN 3.7 ($1.08 million). Existing shareholders of Praterm include Nova Polonia Private Equity Fund, which has a 65 percent stake, plus Nederlandse Financierings investment group and several smaller shareholders. Mr. Kowalewski himself owns almost 7.5 percent of the company.

Personal savings

Polish bond yields lower

Polish Finance Ministry has reduced yields on two- and four-year retail bonds, popular with local investors because of declining market yields and lower inflation.

The yield on two-year bonds going on sale next month fell by a quarter of a point to 6.75 percent. Investors buying four-year COI treasuries can now expect returns of 6.9 percent, down 0.1 percent from last months? sale.

Insurance

PZU turns into a holding company

Shareholders of Powszechny Zakład Ubezpieczeniowy, Poland?s no. 1 insurance firm, cleared plans to turn the group into a The process of carving up property, asset management, mutual fund and other units that will be controlled by the future PZU Holding could take over a year, Stypułkowski, ex-Citibank manager in Poland, said.