News Parkiet

Mutual funds

Skarbiec to launch first Polish umbrella fund

TFI Skarbiec, a mutual fund company that is part of BRE Bank group, has filed to register Poland's first umbrella fund with the Securities and Exchanges Commission.

'We want to set up an umbrella fund consisting of three subfunds', Piotr Kuba, senior executive at TFI Skarbiec told PARKIET.

New funds will offer tax advantages to investors by letting them switch from one fund to another without triggering capital gains taxes.

Privatization

Eureko holds last chance talks over PZU

Representatives of Eureko, pan-European insurance group met with Polish government officials yesterday for secret talks to settle the dispute over privatization sale of PZU, Poland's biggest insurer.

Poland could end up paying as much as 1 billion euros in compensation for delaying the sale of PZU, as promised in 2001 privatization agreement.

Telecommunications

ATM announces price range for IPO

Niche data carrier ATM SA announced Wednesday the price range for shares it proposes to sell in its IPO in Warsaw later this month.

ATM will issue 300.000 new shares for between 20 and 24 zloty. Two venture capital funds controlled by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development plan to sell another 817.00 shares.

ATM said earlier the stock would be priced at between 18 and 30 zloty.

Warsaw-based ATM sells wholesale broadband access services to web directories and other corporate users.

Food industry

Hoop 2003 earnings halved by charges

Hoop SA generic Cola maker reported revised 2003 earnings of just 2.6 million zloty, just over half the initial figure in its fourth quarter report last year. Operating income was down PLN 2.3 million to 17.7 million zloty.

Hoop blames lower earnings on special provisions by one of its subsidiaries and negative goodwill write-offs on an acquisition of Pomorskie Centrum Dystrybucyjne, a regional distribution firm and various other charges.

Shares of Warsaw-based company fell 5 percent to a new all time low of 11.55 zloty. Hoop went public in August 2003 at 21 zloty in an IPO marred by charges the company is grossly overvalued.

Equity markets

Constitutional Tribunal to rule on minority squeeze-out

Polish ombudsman has asked the Constitutional Tribunal to look into the legality of the squeeze-out mechanism after numerous complaints by minority shareholders forced to sell their stock below fair market value. Mandatory buy-out of minority shareholders is possible in Poland after accumulating at least 95 percent stake in a privately held company. Retail investors who decided to hang on to their shares in several firms that were delisted from the WSE say majority shareholders in effect set their own squeeze-out offers by selecting 'friendly' experts to estimate the value of their stock once they are no longer a public company. In one notable case, corporate buyout specialist advising Austria's Semperit rubber-maker decided to apply an arbitrary 54 percent discount to his valuation, cutting the price from 40 to just 18.4 zloty.

Equity markets

Millennium fined over Broker FM report

Millenium Dom Maklerski brokerage house says it won't comment on a 100.000 zloty fine because of June research report on Broker FM radio station operator before that company's Initial Public Offering. Millennium DM handled the IPO process of Poland's top commercial radio station.

Apparently the SEC thought Millennium didn't failed to disclose all the ties with its client in the document.

New media

Wirtualna Polska's finances getting betterFinancial situation of Wirtualna Polska, Poland's second largest Internet directory, is improving despite the fact the portal is operating under bankruptcy protection since March. Wojciech Reguła, court-appointed administrator managing Wirtualna says the portal is selling enough ads and other services to cover its daily operating expenses. Total six-month sales were up 70 percent from the same period last year. Yesterday Wirtualna launched its own VISP dial-up Internet access services using telecommunications network of Energis Polska.