News Parkiet

Equity markets

SEC investigating Żółkiewicz Investments

Polish Securities and Exchanges Commission is looking into a mystery investment fund that operates without a license and boasts guaranteed annual returns of 11.8 percent. Żółkiewicz Investment Fund is also selling other investment products, including a fund that splits most of its assets among the futures market and MIDWIG mid-cap index.

Banking

SEC approval for PKO BP stock sale

expected today

Polish Securities and Exchanges Commission is expected to authorize planned 6-billion zloty ($1.7 billion) IPO of the country?s largest bank, state-owned PKO BP. The bank was putting final touches on its massive issuing prospecturs late yesterday, trying to beat the deadline to make all the revisions requested by the SEC.

Restaurants

AmRest to file for IPO soon

Upcoming IPO of AmRest fast food chain could be much bigger than previously announced, sources told PARKIET yesterday. AmRest, which operates about 150 Pizza Hut and KFC outlets in Poland and in the Czech Republic, said earlier it would seek up to 40 million dollars listing its stock in Warsaw. The company itself refused to comment on rumors that the offering would be much bigger. However, CFO Alan Laughlin admits that Yum! Brands, 50 percent shareholder of AmRest, may be planning to sell part or all of its stake as part of an IPO. The Netherlands-registered AmRest Holdings says it will file for IPO in the fall of this year.

Telecommunications

ATM managers to buy stock

in next month?s IPO

Senior executives at ATM SA, a Warsaw-based data carrier going public next month, say they plan to buy their company?s shares in an IPO that starts on September 6. ?We?re interested in the IPO and we plan to sign up for shares offered to institutional investors?, chief executive Roman Szwed said on Monday. ATM?s CEO and his deputy Tadeusz Czichon each owns 20 percent of the company.

ATM is planning to sell up to 817.000 shares at between 18 and 30 zloty each.

Telecommunications

Telekomunikacja Polska raises ADSL

subscriber forecasts

Telekomunikacja Polska, Central Europe?s biggest phone company, has raised planned broadband Internet subscriber figures from 460.000 to 500.000 at the end of this year. TP, which is part of the France Telecom group, had about 350.000 ADSL subscribers at the end of July.

The operator spent an estimated 175 million zloty this year to roll out ADSL services, Mariusz Gaca, the head of TP?s Multimedia Department said.

Civil engineering

Elektromontaż to seek protection from creditors

Elektromontaż Warszawa, a small, publicly traded electrical contractor that is 65 percent owned by Mostostal Export, said it will file for protection from creditors. The firm says it can?t finance existing contracts, let alone start repaying its debts. Elektromontaż, which is trading near the bottom of its 0.73 - 2.83 zloty, 52-week trading range, also said it would sell real estate and other non-core assets to pay down its 23-million zloty short-term debt.

Food industry

Brok-Strzelec in talks over Perła brewery

Brok-Strzelec SA, the smallest of the four publicly traded Polish breweries, is talking to a local bank about regaining control over its minority stake in Perła brewery from Lublin. Bank Gospodarki Żywnościowej seized 26 percent of Perła last month, most likely because it thought Brok woudn?t be able to find a buyer for these assets by the end of 2005, as promised earlier. The stake is worth an estimated 17.5 million zloty. Brok-Strzelec, which has a 1.7 percent market share, retains 22 percent interest in Perła. A company with ties to Polish businessman Józef Hubert Gierowski owns the majority stake. In a separate development, Brok-Strzelec CEO and founder Adam Brodowski said his company saw a 40 percent increase in sales in August c

Power industry

ZE PAK to spin off non-core units

Shareholders of ZE PAK power plant have agreed the sale of PAK Ochrona, a small security firm, signaling the begining of large-scale asset sale. ZE PAK, which is controlled by Elektrim power and telecoms group and by the Polish government, plans to sell several non-core subsidiaries employing about 1000 workers. Trade unions at the plant complain that planned asset sale runs against the terms of generous employee benefits package accepted by shareholders during partial privatization several years ago.