News Parkiet

Telecommunications

France Telecom buys 13.6 pct.

of Telekomunikacja Polska

Kulczyk Holding investment group, a private company controlled by Poland's no. 1 businessman, Jan Kulczyk, sold its 13.6 percent stake in Telekomunikacja Polska phone company to France Telecom on Tuesday for an estimated 2.2 billion euros. The French operator has raised its stake in TP to 47.5 percent. It paid over 50 zloty per share for 190 million shares of Telekomunikacja. That compares with yesterday's closing price on the WSE of 15.05 zloty.

Equity market

WSE awaits earnings season

Polish equity analysts expect strong second quarter results once the earnings season begins in earnest sometime next week. Brokers surveyed by PARKIET say oil and resource stocks, led by PKN Orlen and KGHM Polish Copper, are on track to post what may be their best ever quarterly earnings because of strong commodity prices. Major Polish banks also look much better than last year thanks to asset sales and other one-time events. Tech stocks may report weaker earnings, some analysts say, citing weaker order backlog and the postponement of large IT contracts.

Telecommunications

TP sales lower than expected

France Telecom-owned Telekomunikacja Polska, Poland's national phone company, reported lower than expected second quarter sales on Tuesday because of rapidly declining revenue of its fixed-line unit. Group sales rose to 4.63 billion zloty thanks to 28 percent increase at Centertel, TP's mobile unit in the first half of this year. Six-month sales at Telekomunikacja itself fell almost 6 percent to PLN 6.84 billion.

At the end of June, Telekomunikacja Polska had 340.000 broadband users, up from 146.000 from the same period last year.

'Second-quarter and first-half results are slightly below what the market expected', says DB Securities analyst Krzysztof Kaczmarczyk. Telekomunikacja has very little chance of meeting its previous sales goal for 2004. 'The market is ready for bad news. Few people believe this year's growth would be more than 1.5 - 2 percent', he says.

Telecommunications

Energis restarts talks with new investor

Alternative Polish data carrier Energis Polska has resumed talks with an unnamed investor willing to buy a stake in the company, CEO Jarosław Mikos said yesterday.

'We'll know something on that one within the next three months. Then Energis will prepare an outline for its M&A strategy', Mikosa said.

Privately held Energis also reported 2Q sales of 65 million zloty, almost double last year's figures. First-half EBITDA totaled 8.7 million zloty.

The number of telecom customers rose from 1500 to 3700, Energis said.

Focusing on large corporate customers, Energis sells ISDN and wholesale data services. It also offers network access to half a dozen Virtual ISPs, including Onet.pl and Interia.pl web directories.

Energis, which was founded in 1999 by UK's Energis plc and National Grid, said it is on track towards full-year sales of PLN 220 million. The firm expects EBITDA of at least 30 million zloty.

Banking

BZ WBK's 2Q net doubles on asset sale

Bank Zachodni WBK, a Polish lender controlled by Allied Irish Banks, said its second-quarter earnings doubled after the company sold card-processing unit, CardPoint SA, for PLN 68 million. The bank also paid 41 million zloty less in income taxes because of new regulations in Poland.

Net income rose to 123 million zloty from PLN 61 million in the same period last year, the company said in a statement released yesterday morning. Bank Zachodni WBK's loan portfolio expanded to 13.1 billion at the end of June.

Provisions for high risk loans almost doubled to PLN 62.2 million year-on-year. Jacek Kseń, the bank's chief executive, said he expects at least 15 percent return on equity this year. Total income could rise to as much as 375 million zloty if Bank ZachoAlma Market grocery retailer has announced detailed plans for a secondary offering of up to 1 million new shares in a filing document published yesterday. Kraków-based food distributor said it wants to sell as many as 800.000 shares to institutional investors, with the remaining 200.000 new shares. Stock subscription begins on August 9, ending three days later. Alma said earlier it wants to raise about 35 million zloty from the sale, which is handled by BDM PKO BP brokerage. Preliminary price range will be published on August 4, after a two-day book-building process.