News Parkiet

Petrochemicals

MOL could join Unipetrol bid

Hungarian oil and gas company MOL may join PKN in its bid for Czech oil company Unipetrol, sources close to the situation told PARKIET yesterday. PKN, which controls 70 percent of Poland's oil refining capacity and over one-third of local gas stations and ConocoPhillips are reportedly negotiating on new joint projects, including the production of natural gas. MOL's recent proposal and Orlen's official plans to merge with its Hungarian counterpart could scuttle plans for closer ties with US company.

Equity markets

European stocks, WSE fall after Spanish

terror attacks

Stock markets across Europe fell sharply yesterday after a series of bomb attacks in Madrid, with several key indexes declining to their lowest levels this year. Somewhat surprisingly, the dollar also fell against the euro and European bonds gained, highlighting concerns about the US economy. Warsaw's main WIG20 blue-chip index was down 34 points or 1.9 percent.

Power industry

Rafako to bid for megacontract in Vietnam

Polish power industry supplier Rafako S.A. together with Japan's Marubeni Corp. will make a bid for a new power plant in Vietnam, sources close to the company told PARKIET recently. Closer to home, publicly traded firm has made a bid for the multimillion dollar contract to build a new fluidized bed boiler in the Belarussian city of Brest.

Rafako's CEO Ryszard Kapluk says his company's earnings could rise 'several times' compared with last year's PLN 4.4 million ($1.1 million) thanks to rising export sales and the ongoing recovery of the domestic market.

Rafako's shares have more than doubled to 16 zloty since the beginning of this year after the company published a series of upbeat announcements on future contracts with power industry customers.

Telecommunications

DM BOŚ raises target price

for Telekomunikacja Polska

Dom Maklerski BOŚ brokerage has raised its target price for Telekomunikacja Polska, Central Europe's largest phone company to 18.5 zloty. TP closed at 16.6 zloty yesterday. The broker has maintained 'accumulate' rating for the stock.

Polish farmers' can't afford EU lobbying

Polish farmers' associations are complaining they can't afford the 570.000 euro membership fee in COPA-COGECA agricultural lobbying group. An informal delegation is visiting Brussels to negotiate possible reduction of Poland's share in the pan-European association.

Automatic control systems

Apator doubles sales on acquisition

Publicly traded maker of electricity meters Apator S.A. will almost double its sales after buying controlling stake in Zakłady Automatyki Pafal from Fund.1 and several other Polish privatization funds. Toruń, northern Poland-based Apator has agreed to pay 15.6 million zloty ($4 million) for 68 percent stake in firm.

Last year Pafal posted sales of approximately 77 million zloty, with just over 1 percent net margins. Slightly larger Apator earned a total of 10 million zloty. Its shares on the Warsaw Stock Exchange rose 8 percent to close at a new all-time high of 74.8 zloty following the announcement.

Building materials

Atlas sales lower due to construction

industry slump

Group sales of Atlas glue-maker fell about 3 percent to PLN 991 million last year, privately held company said earlier this week. Earnings were down over 10 percent to PLN 113 million. 'We haven't been able to increase sales in 2003 because Polish construction industry is a disaster right now', says Atlas' PR manager Aleksandra Paprocka.

Its first production plant outside Poland, based in Russia had marginal impact on sales because it was opened just a few months ago, Paprocka said. Despite poor prospects for this year because of higher VAT taxes on building materials, Atlas is going ahead with previous plans to build a huge limestone quarry Several unnamed international banks from the European Union, Asia and former Soviet Union may apply for Polish banking licenses, Komisja Nadzoru Bankowego said yesterday at its first press conference since the banking watchdog was founded six years ago.

International banks and their local subsidiaries already control 68 percent of assets held by Polish banks, up from just 17 percent in 1998.