News Parkiet

Personal savings

Mutual funds plan goodbye fees to retain clients

Polish mutual funds are reportedly planning to impose huge penalties for investors switching IKE retirement savings account, sources told PARKIET last week. Commissions for early withdrawals could go as high as half the savings on IKE accounts for those who try to move their money within the initial twelve-month period. Individual IKE accounts, which are exempted from capital gains taxes, will be launched on September 1st.

Equity markets

Criminal charges expected in WSE trading scam

February 4 trading on the futures market warrants criminal charges, court-appointed expects said, bringing the case closer to a trial. Two investors are already facing charges in Poland?s biggest stock market scandal in recent years. Virgin Islands-registered company gained about 2.6 million zloty after a sudden drop and the subsequent spike of WIG20 futures contracts engineered by former stockbrokers Rafał G. and Arkadiusz O. Polish law doesn?t allow the media to publicize last names of the defendants.

Mining

Kopex in a freefall after the loss of Vietnam contract

Shares of Kopex S.A. mine builder plunged 8.5 percent on Friday after a late Thursday announcement the company has lost its biggest contract to upgrade three large coal mines in Vietnam. The stock closed at 59 zloty, down 6.5 zloty from the day before in heavy trading. Vietnamese contract represented over two year?s worth of revenue for Kopex, which reported sales of PLN 208 million ($56 million) last year.

Telecommunications

ATM announces IPO details

ATM S.A., a small data carrier that also offers IT services, has announced details of its 33 million zloty Initial Public Offering, scheduled for early September. Warsaw-based firm said it wants to sell up to 1.11 million shares priced at between 18 and 30 zloty each. The offering includes 817.000 existing shares, sold by Polish Pre-IPO Fund, a venture capital outfit. BDM PKO BP brokerage will handle the IPO, one of this year?s smallest.

ATM plans to use IPO money, some 9 million zloty in total, to expand its ATMAN fiber optics network. It now has a data transmission network covering parts of Warsaw. ATM needs about 20 million zloty for the project.

?We will go to the bank for the rest?, CEO and shareholder Roman Szwed says.

Company officials said on Friday ATM is expecting profits of at least 5.1 million zloty. Sales are forecast to increase to PLN 94 million from last year?s 73 million zloty.

Automotive industry

7bulls.com is back

7bulls.com, an Iveco delivery truck dealer that tried and failed to sell itself as a Linux software house, sees a revival of its core business. Based in Nadarzyn near Warsaw, 7bulls.com reported second-quarter profits of 1.8 million zloty. That compares with a loss of PLN 2.3 million in the same period a year ago.

?We are expecting strong sales growth and net profits for all of 2004?, vice CEO Jacek Łuczak told PARKIET recently

Previously known as AS Motors, 7bulls.com says it isn?t worried by rising used car imports after Poland?s entry into the European Union because most of these are passenger vehicles. ?Foreign exchange risk is more important for 7bulls.com, but that?s something our competitors have to worry about as well?, Łuczak explains.

Electrical engineering

Rafako makes a bid for another contract

Rafako SA, an engineering company that makes industrial boilers used by the power industry, has made the sole bid to upgrade 360 Megawatt facility at Bełchatów power plant in south-central Poland. The contact is part of Bełchatów?s six-year modernization plan that will reduce pollution and expand the plant?s useful life.

Real estate

Deutsche Bank sold its stake in GTC

Deutsche Bank unit FIC Globe is reported to have sold its 4.8 percent stake in Globe Trade Centre, one of Poland?s biggest property developers, whose shares are listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. CDM Pekao and ING Securities stockbrokers, who helped sell GTC?s 100-million dollar IPO earlier this year said they have agreed to waive the lock-up period of the pre-IPO investor.

Sources close to the situation said FIC Globe, which had 950.000 shares, sold 104.7 million zloty worth of stock in a series of after-hours block trades late Friday.

?We have the right to waive lock-up commitments involving GTC as long as it doesn?t have negative impact on the market?, Jacek Radziwilski, managing director of CDM Pekao explains. ?We don?t see that risk right now. Demand for the stock is much greater than actual supply, it?s obvious?, he adds.