News Parkiet

Banking

Pekao could merge with BRE Bank

UniCredito?s Polish subsidiary, Grupa Pekao S.A. is considering possible merger with BRE Bank, Poland?s no. 1 investment bank, a well-placed source in the financial community told PARKIET recently. Pekao spokesman Robert Moreń has denied the rumors.

UniCredito owns 53 percent of Pekao, while Commerzbank has recently raised its stake in BRE Bank to just over 50 percent.

UniCredito?s Chief Executive Officer Carlo Salvatori said recently his bank is ready to expand in Central and Eastern Europe, prompting rumors of Pekao?s takeover of the much smaller Bank Millennium.

BRE?s representatives were not available for comment.

The two firms would become Poland?s no. 1 bank, with combined assets of some 90 billion zloty, including own equity of PLN 9 billion.

Equity markets

WSE missed a chance to cancel bad orders

Warsaw Stock Exchange could have canceled hundreds of futures orders executed on February 4 after an apparent price manipulation scheme caused massive losses to BDM PKO BP brokerage house and a number of other investors.

CEO Wiesław Rozłucki said at the time other stock exchanges around the world accept extreme price movements, refusing to cancel the transactions.

In fact, an impromptu survey by PARKIET shows both Eurex, Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade follow a different policy, occasionally using a so-called ?mistrade policy? in the event of order entry errors or other sudden, unusual price changes.

Logistics

Heavy-Net to start selling forklifts on the Internet

Warsaw-based forklift dealer Wandalex S.A. has announced plans to start selling its products over the Internet through wholly owned subsidiary Heavy-Net. The company, Poland?s largest distributor of Yale and Daewoo forklifts also says its sales last year grew about 20 percent to PLN 60 million, with 2.5 percent net margins. Detailed figures will be published on Friday.

Wandalex is listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

Banking

Millennium?s loan portfolio shrinks after PTF sale

Outstanding loans at Banco Comercial Portugues-controlled Bank Millennium fell by one-fifth after the bank sold 2.1 billion zloty ($540 million) worth of car loans managed by Polskie Towarzystwo Finansowe, a personal finance company. The buyer, Spain?s Santander group has agreed to pay Millennium approximately 150 million zloty as compensation for lost interest income.

The economy

Capital goods? exports rising

Export sales of Polish-made capital goods are improving, says Polish Main Office of Statistics (GUS) after releasing January figures on industrial production. Capital spending by Polish companies remains weak, despite the economic recovery.

Steel industry

Ropczyce down on fears PHS will cut prices

Shares of Poland?s largest maker of refractory materials, Ropczyce S.A. may fall another 25 percent to as little as 10 zloty after news reports key customer is demanding lower prices, BDM PKO BP brokerage said in a report published on February 18.

LNM Group?s steel holding Polskie Huty Stali is reportedly asking suppliers to cut their prices by as much as 40-45 percent.

Sales to PHS account for up to 30 percent of Ropczyce?a revenues.

Ropczyce, which is listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange fell about 13 percent since the news was out.

BDM PKO, which previously rated Ropczyce a ?buy? with the target price of 18 zloty has now decided to downgrade the stock to ?speculative sell?, with a new target price of just 10 zloty.