News Parkiet

Metals

Bidding war over Impexmetal heats up

Boryszew SA, a chemicals holding controlled by Polish businessman Roman Karkosik and UK-based investment fund that specializes in Eastern European equities are waiting for government decision on the sale of Impexmetal, a non-ferrous metals trading company from Warsaw. Mr. Karkosik, who owns Boryszew and several other chemicals and manufacturing businesses, bought over 10 percent of Impexmetal from local investment funds in order to get a head start before the future showdown expected at Impexmetal?s next meeting later this month.

Politics

Parliament rejects no confidence vote

for Belka

Prime minister Marek Belka won his second vote of confidence on Friday, extending the term of his cabinet until the spring of next year. Belka won by a 234 to 218 majority with no abstentions.

Health services

Swissmed up 54 percent on IPO

Shares of Swissmed SA, Poland?s first private hospital to go public on the WSE rose 54.6 percent on their first day of trading on Friday despite skepticism about the company?s finances. The stock closed at 4.33 zloty versus IPO price of PLN 2.8 ($0.80). It traded as high as 6.3 zloty, up 125 percent from the offering price in intraday trading. Some 336.000 shares, or 3 percent of the total changed hands.

In September Swissmed sold just 1.53 million of the 3.5 million shares as it tried to raise money to pay down its debts and buy the equipment needed to open a second hospital. It said later it would continue expansion by taking up even more debt.

For this year Swissmed is expecting to report a small loss on sales of approximately 5 million zloty. That compares with market value of some 50 million zloty.

Information Technology

ComArch outsourcing IT jobs to Eastern Europe

ComArch SA, one of Poland?s top 5 publicly traded IT groups, has announced plans to outsource software development to Slovakia and Ukraine after signing new deals with technical universities there. Cracow-based software house, which specializes in billing applications for telco customers in Europe and elsewhere, plans to hire about 300 new software developers and other IT specialists this year. It had 1100 employees at the end of last year. New workers include 20 recent university grads in Bratislava, Slovakia. ComArch has also signed agreements with universities in Kiev and Lviv.

?We?ve decided to open software development centers outside Poland to lower our production costs?, chief executive Janusz Filipiak, himself a university professor at the University of Science and Technology in Cracow. ?We realize that in two or three years there will be a shortage of software developers in Poland. By then, ComArch will have its own, well trained staff working abroad?, Filipiak boasts.

Retailing

LPP near all-time high

Shares of Polish fashion retailer LPP closed at 587 zloty ($168.77) on Friday, making Gdańsk-based company the most expensive stock on the Warsaw bourse, at least in nominal terms. LPP, which gained over 1200 percent since going public four years ago, is performing much better than other apparel firms listed on the WSE. Artman and Redan both cut their forecasts this year, blaming bad weather and overstocking. Meanwhile, LPP is expecting net earnings of PLN 43 million (25.25 zloty per share) and is well on target to meet its target. Nine month sales were up 37 percent to PLN 364 million.

Sources at the company, which has operations in six Central and Eastern European countries in addition to its home market, say they have received several visits from international investors interested in the firm recently.

Glass industry

Krosno, Irena may bid for HSG Zawiercie

Two leading publicly traded glass manufacturing firm, Krosno and Irena, say they may consider separate bids for the state-owned HSG Zawiercie, a smaller, state-owned firm The government has announced on Friday it will auction between 51 and 85 percent of Zawiercie to the highest bidder in a privatization sale scheduled to end in mid-December.

Heavily indebted Huta Zawiercie specializes in crystal glasses and other crystal tableware. ?Zawiercie?s situation is very difficult right now?, Krosno?s CEO Jan Kurkus says. ?Still, we would like to have a chance to buy and restructure the plant".

Kurkus told PARKIET his company has earned more than 12 million zloty ($3.44 million) in the eight months to September. Krosno?s sales are up between 20 and 30 percent despite stronger Polish zloty, which makes export sales to the US and UK less profitable.