News Parkiet

Equity markets

WSE, KDPW have to go private, officials say

Warsaw Stock Exchange and KDPW clearing house would be better off in private hands, government officials and WSE insiders participating in PARKIET roundtable said yesterday. They also agreed that WSE is exposed to hostile takeover unless it is sold to investors with strong local interest.

Banking

Raiffeisen?s Polish unit reports record

nine-month earnings

Polish subsidiary of Raiffeisen Zentralbank Osterreich said yesterday profits in the first nine months of the year rose to a record level as it increased income from financing import and export trade. Net income at Raiffeisen Bank Polska (RPB) was up 131 percent to PLN 113.2 million, or 33.2 million US dollars. Return On Equity totaled 23.6 percent, company officials said yesterday.

Austrian bank?s Polish unit increased its assets by more than 10 percent to PLN 10 billion, with net assets at around 640 million zloty.

Separately, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said yesterday it would invest 200 million euro in RBP?s immediate parent company, Raiffeisen International, together with the International Finance Corporation. Each will buy four percent of Raiffeisen International, EBRD said.

Privatization funds

PZU to sell three privatization funds

PZU insurance group plans to sell three NFI privatization funds along with asset management firm that runs Drugi NFI, NFI Progress and NFI im.Kwiatkowskiego, sources told PARKIET yesterday. The buyer, CA IB Fund Management, a unit of Bank Austria Creditanstalt, will be making mandatory offers to minority shareholders of PZU?s publicly traded funds.

Three privatization funds manage assets of some 620 million zloty, including minor stakes in various public and private companies and large cash holdings.

Publishing

WSiP sets IPO price at 9 zloty

Government-owned textbook publisher Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne (WSiP) has set the price for its Initial Public Offering at 9 zloty per share, Polish authorities said in a statement published Wednesday night.

Retail investors who sign up by the end of today receive

a 5 percent discount.

The Treasury Ministry, which handles WSiP privatization sale, could raise about 230 million zloty selling 85 percent of the company, which has over 30 million shares outstanding. The remaining 15 percent will be held for WSiP employees.

Local stockbrokers estimate WSiP is worth between 9.63 and 14.2 zloty per share. They note however, that WSiP operating margins are slipping across the board since 2001. WSiP, which has about 30 percent market share, reported nine month earnings of 29 million zloty on sales of PLN 194 million.

Information Technology

CSS to announce new acquisitions on Nov. 3

Warsaw outsourcing company Computer Service Support is set to announce acquisitions of two IT security firms on November 3, chief executive Andrzej Woźniakowski told PARKIET recently. Planned acquisitions will add revenues of up to 50 percent to CSS? PLN 100 million annual sales, Mr. Woźniakowski said.

Earlier this month CSS has agreed to pay about 5 million zloty for an 80 percent stake in BiG Vent, one of leading distributors of mass storage devices in Poland.

Information Technology

ComputerLand announces

new banking strategy

Poland?s no. 2 IT company, Warsaw-based ComputerLand, plans to double its export sales to approximately 40 million zloty next year, vice CEO Sławomir Chłoń said at

a press conference yesterday. Its Russian unit, CSBI from St. Petersburg, already generates annual sales of some

4 million US dollars.

ComputerLand, which grew one of the country?s top technology companies after listing on the Warsaw bourse in mid-1990?s, plans to retain its position as the biggest local provider of IT services for the bankingSoftbank SA, another technology stock listed on the WSE said earlier this week it plans to recapture no. 1 spot with annual sales of some 360 million zloty by 2006.

?Our sales to financial institutions right now stand at around 300 million zloty, so we are taking this challenge with a grain of salt?, Chłoń said.