News Parkiet

Banking

Mortgage loan boom continues

Polish consumers continue to flock to the housing market, according to new figures showing mortgage lending in the second quarter. State-owned PKO BP has retained its 38 percent stake in the booming market, followed by HVB group's Bank BPH, which doubled its mortgage lending portfolio in just three months. Third market player, GE Bank Mieszkaniowy, fell behind. GE's unit expanded its portfolio by just 10 percent in the second quarter.

Pekao SA, Poland's second largest bank traditionally refuses to publish its mortgage debt figures before releasing official quarterly report for investors.

Taxes

Poland may change mutual fund tax rules

Mutual fund investors could win the right to offset their capital gains and losses, reducing their tax liabilities, senior official at the Polish Finance Ministry said. 'For tax purposes, we might consider similar tax treatment for mutual fund units as other securities', Bartosz Drabikowski, department head at the Ministry told PARKIET on Friday.

Information Technology

MacroSoft surges on expectations, new rating

Shares of MacroSoft SA, a small, Warsaw-based maker of ERP software for small companies, rose as much as 14.5 percent to three year high, closing at 30 zloty on Friday. The stock rose 50 last week alone as risk-inclined institutional and retail investors bought shares of the 59-million zloty company.

On Friday, BDM PKO brokerage issued its first research report on MacroSoft, with a 'buy' rating and a target price of 35 zloty. BDM expects MacroSoft to post net earnings of some 3.4 million zloty, or 2.02 zloty per share.

Paper industry

Grajewo to buy back own stock from shareholder

Grajewo SA, top Polish maker of wood panels, has announced plans to buy back over 100 million zloty worth of its own stock from Germany's Pfleiderer AG. Grajewo has agreed to buy 500.000 shares from Pfleiderer and from Pfleiderer Prospan using some of the proceeds from June's 288-million zloty stock sale.

Pharmaceuticals

Polfa reports June earnings

Polfa Kutno drug-maker has reported its first ever monthly earnings at the request of new key shareholder, Miami-based Ivax Corp. The firm said its June earnings totaled as much as 15.3 million zloty on sales of PLN 39 million. That compares with just over 1 million zloty in earnings in all of third quarter.

However, Polfa explained record monthly earnings are skewed by end of quarter payments from customers. Complete 2Q report will be published on August 4.

From now on, Polfa will publish monthly reports based on US GAAP, giving Ivax access to its financial data, the company said. US drug-maker has 25 percent of Polfa Kutno.

Steel

Stalexport sheds another non-core business

Stalexport steel trading group sold its majority stake in Złomhut scrap metal distributor to Spain's Celsa, the company said in a statement on Thursday. Polish firm received 9.5 million zloty for its 65 percent stake in Złomhut, booking about 7.5 million zloty in profits before taxes.

Separately Stalexport said SAM toll highway operator reported a 7.3 percent increase in traffic volume on the A-4 highway connecting the cities of Kraków and Katowice in southern Poland. Wholly owned subsidiary may post even better earnings this year after reporting 59 million zloty net profit in 2003. Its sales totaled PLN 80 million.

Real estate

Energomontaż starts two property projects

Energomontaż-Północ, a mid-sized, publicly traded civil engineering company has announced plans to build new 80-million zloty housing projects in an around Warsaw. Two Energomontaż subsidiaries are ready to start building an apartment complex in Warsaw and another one in Piaseczno by the end of summer, chief executive Wiesław Różacki told PARKIET on Friday.

Transportation

Trans-Południe reporTrans-Południe truck company from southern Poland has announced first-half sales of more than 15 million zloty, or $4.1 million. Gross sales rose to 0.8 million zloty versus PLN 0.7 million for all of 2003. Privately held firm, which operates a fleet of about 170 trucks, says it may go public sometime in the future to raise money for expansion.