News parkiet

Equity markets

Pernod Ricard raises its bid for Agros group

Patience paid off for minority shareholders of Agros SA a year after it was taken off the WSE by France?s Pernod Ricard, which gutted former alcohol and food processing conglomerate, selling off virtually all of its assets and trademarks. Pernod Ricard initially offered 10 zloty per ordinary share, accumulating 99.5 percent stake in the Polish firm. Now the French company has raised its offer to almost 34 zloty per share in a mandatory bid to squeeze out minority shareholders.

Public finances

Gronicki to discuss next year?s budget at the Sejm

New Finance Minister Mirosław Gronicki will make his first appearance before parliamentary Finances Committee today, unveiling proposed amendments to next year?s budget and planned tax code changes. Gronicki, an economics professor, is expected to face demands for lower taxes for taxpayers in the lowest income brackets from the opposition and from his own Social Democratic Left Alliance.

Equity market

IDMSA.PL to start auditing stockbroker?s clients

IDMSA.PL - Biegli Rewidenci, a tiny auditing firm from Kraków, won auditing deal with a publicly traded meat processing company whose IPO in late 2002 was handled by auditor?s minority shareholder, IDMSA.PL brokerage house.

?The auditor has a majority stake in the auditing firm and we own the remaining 49 percent?, says IDMSA.PL?s Grzegorz Leszczyński. ?There?s no conflict of interest. We trust the people who work there?, says ZM Duda?z director general Maciej Duda. ?Besides, the auditor who signs our reports is independent. They?ve offered us very favorable terms, including the price?, Duda adds.

IDMSA.PL is itself planning to sell shares to the public. The broker will file for IPO in November, seeking up to 20 million zloty to expand its operations. Management-owned IDMSA.PL reported net earnings of some 3.7 million zloty in the seven months to August. Its revenue rose to more than 27 million zloty.

Telecommunications

Netia to finance Dialog acquisition with bank loans

Netia SA, Poland?s second largest local phone company, plans to go to the bank to finance planned merger with Telefonia Dialog, the country?s third largest fixed-line telco, chief executive Wojciech Mądalski said yesterday. Mądalski, a former food industry executive who helped restructure Netia after its near bankruptcy two years ago, denied media reports that Dialog?s owner, KGHM mining group, decided to hold on to its 100 percent stake in the regional operator. The mine is merely postponing Dialog sale, Mądalski said.

State-owned KGHM is reportedly asking PLN 900 million for Dialog, which has over 420.000 subscribers, mainly in southwestern Poland.

Building materials

Kreisel looks to go public

Kreisel Technika Budowlana, a mid-sized manufacturer of gypsum and related building materials, may list its shares on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, CFO Mateusz Siekierczak told PARKIET this week. Poznań-based unit of Germany?s Kreisel GmbH needs up to 50 million zloty for expansion in Poland and in the former Soviet Union, as well as mergers with smaller, local competitors. Kreisel is already building a new manufacturing plant near Moscow and another one in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev to increase its output. It now has about 200 million zloty in annual sales, with net margins of about 4 percent.

Venture capital

MCI sees higher 2004 earnings

Publicly traded IT venture capital fund MCI Management said on Monday it expects higher fiscal 2004 earnings after selling part of its stakes in several portfolio companies. MCI, which owns various stakes in about a dozen IT, m-commerce and Internet start-ups, says it expects at least 3.5 million zloty in profits versus last year?s PLN 0.9 million. Net asset value of its portfolio could double to PLN 99.9 million ($26.6 million).

MCI posted six-month gains of 3.5 million zloty after a pre-IPO sale of a minor stake in Travelplanet.pl, an Internet travel agency and two other firms.

Banking

Getin to start reporting GBG earnings

Getting Holding financial group will report first ever-earnings of its most recent acquisition, GBG Bank, in its six-month report in late September. The group, which is 60 percent owned by Polish businessman Leszek Czarnecki, has made a bid to buy another financial institution, Bank Przemysłowy from Łódź. Getin, which also has a stake in Russian car leasing company Carcade, said earlier it expects GBG to earn as much as 40 million zloty this year.

Getin has already pledged to inject 165 million zloty in cash into Bank Przemysłowy, which is managed by a court-appointed administrator.