News Parkiet

Privatization

Poland may hire private company

to manage stock holdings

Polish government may hire a private asset management firm to sell its 3.5 billion zloty stake in over 60 publicly traded companies, senior official at the Ministry of Treasury told PARKIET this week. The list excludes two of the biggest state holdings, PKN Orlen oil refinery and KGHM Polish Copper, a mining group.

The government, through Ministry of Treasury headed by former SEC chairman Jacek Socha since early June, sold stakes in eight smaller companies this year, raising just over 22 million zloty.

?The question is, do we really want ministry officials making decisions about the timing of each sale, the price and the number of shares offered?, deputy Treasury Minister Dariusz Witkowski said. Mr. Witkowski, a former SEC official says the government may ask for bids by licensed Polish asset management firms, as well as international investment management firms to handle the sale of state assets.

Information Technology

Comp may postpone IPO

until November

Planned IPO of Comp SA, a Warsaw-based maker of encryption devices, may be delayed until the first week of November because of the much larger offering by PKO BP, Poland?s largest bank, scheduled just a few weeks earlier. Comp said earlier the IPO, worth an estimated 25 to 35 million zloty, would be held at the end of September.

?We are looking at the situation very closely and we are thinking whether to postpone the sale?, marketing director Ewa Luksic said.

Polish government plans to raise as much as 6 billion zloty ($1.6 billion), selling 30 percent of PKO BP in the biggest privatization IPO in years.

Real estate

PKO BP, Prokom Investments

to build housing project in Wilanów

PKO BP?s real estate subsidiary PKO Inwestycje together with Prokom Investments, a holding company controlled by Polish businessman Ryszard Krauze, announced a 100-million euro housing project in Wilanów, Warsaw?s most expensive residential district. Their joint venture, called Nowy Wilanów, plans to build about 2000 apartments there starting next year.

The entire project to develop rural areas around Wilanów, run by Prokom Investment, will cost upwards of one billion euros.

Manufacturing

Lubawa up on army contract

Shares of Lubawa SA, a small army supplier listed on the Warsaw bourse, rose 5.5 percent to close near its 52-week high at 12.55 zloty yesterday on news of an 8.3 million zloty contract to sell bulletproof vests for the Polish military. The contract accounts for well over a third of Lubawa?s typical annual sales in recent years.