News Parkiet

Chemicals

Ciech IPO has to clear another obstacle

Ciech SA, a large chemicals trading group controlled by the Polish government may have filed an invalid IPO prospectus, sources close to the situation told PARKIET recently. Apparently, Treasury Ministry Jacek Socha has deliberately delayed signing of the document to prevent the misuse of the 20 percent stake in Ciech held by subsidiaries.

Polish government retains a 52 percent interest in Ciech. Its stake after the planned 220 million zloty IPO would decline to around 30 percent, giving Ciech's management more say in how the company is being run.

Equity markets

Finance Ministry says no to lower capital gain tax

Polish Finance Ministry has no plans to give local investors and corporations, whose shares are listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange tax breaks proposed earlier. In March Polish government has approved an ambitious plan to strengthen Polish stock market, called Agenda Warsaw City 2010, including lower taxes on long-term individual investments. Government officials also promised tax deductions of IPO-related expenses for firms listing their stock on the WSE.

Mining

KGHM reports stronger 2Q earnings

KGHM Polish Copper, Poland's sole publicly traded mining company, reported a 1700-percent increase in consolidated second-quarter earnings thanks to higher copper prices and much lower losses at its local phone company, Telefonia Dialog. Profits rose from 27.3 to 494 million zloty, or 2.49 zloty per share, the world's second largest silver producer said yesterday. Sales were up by half to 1954 million zloty ($528 million).

KGHM's Telefonia Dialog reported six-month EBITDA of 90 million zloty on sales of PLN 221 million. Poland's third-largest fixed-line telco lost 9.6 million zloty because of interest expense. At the end of June Telefonia Dialog, which has a strong presence in south-western Poland, had 424.000 subscribers.

Real estate

Howell planning a big comeback

Howell S.A., a nearly bankrupt steel trader with a side business as property developer, says it is talking with creditors to give the company another chance. Wrocław-based Howell was virtually shut down several months ago as banks and the Polish tax authorities seized assets and money on bank accounts. Now Howell's chief executive Waldemar Parkitny tells PARKIET his company is planning a comeback as a property developer. Local court in Wrocław has recently made a preliminary ruling in Howell's favor in a 20-million zloty dispute with the Polish Tax Office. Other creditors could be swayed by company's plans to sell several undeveloped properties in the southern Polish city of Wrocław, Parkitny says. Howell wants to use at least two of these properties for residential housing projects worth as much as 28 million zloty.

Information technology

Optimus sales surge in 2Q

Sales of Optimus S.A., one of Poland's largest maker of PC computers, rose over 60 percent in the second quarter as the company focused its efforts on small business customers. Including two smaller subsidiaries, revenue was up by a quarter to 47 million zloty, Optimus said in a statement released yesterday. Sales to SMEs were up 65 percent. Net loss on sales narrowed to 0.5 million zloty from PLN 1 million last year. Nowy Sącz-based company reported a modest profit after reversing 2.2 million zloty charge related to a failed stock option program.

Food & beverages

Hoop blames poor weather for 2Q performance

It's the weather's fault, says Hoop SA, Hoop SA, Poland's biggest maker of generic colas, after releasing another lousy quarterly report. Hoop, which is based in Warsaw but has production facilities in Eastern and South-central Poland, lost almost 500.000 zloty in the second quarter alone. Sales of the Polish company were down 17 percent to PLN 106 million zloty. Hoop's Russian subsidiary Megapack lost an equivalent of 2.5 million zloty. Last year Hoop spent most of its IPO proceeds, some 60 million zloty in total, to buy 50 percent interest in Megapack, which makes carbonated non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages.

'It's mostly bad weather', Hoop's co-founder and deputy CEO Marek Jutkiewicz says. 'May and June were cold and the whole industry suffered. Price hikes after May 1st because of higher sugar prices may have had some impact as well', Jutkiewicz adds.