Funds will buy stock of state-owned power producers

MG
opublikowano: 2007-10-17 10:07

Warsaw (Puls Biznesu) – Funds say ‘yes’ to IPOs of power producers. They are not in a hurry with analyses, however, because political decisions may soon change.

Shares of national energy groups are supposed to be listed next year. The first on the list is Enea from Poznan which should issue PLN 1.5bn (EUR 403.2m) worth of shares at the end of the first quarter of 2008. Tauron planning its debut at the end of next year wants to raise two times more. The biggest potential investors, i.e. investment funds, will welcome these IPOs but they have some worries.

“Abroad, there are many energy companies listed. In Poland, the choice is limited. The more companies with big capitalization, the better because it’s easier to build a good portfolio. But we have not analyzed promised debuts yet. We are waiting for details, i.e. prospectus and analyzes”, Konrad Lapinski, Skarbiec TFI manager said.

“People talk about an IPO but we don’t know what coalition is going to rule after elections. There have been many privatization plans which ended nowhere. So, this is no news to us, as long as the prospectus is not submitted to financial authorities. We will consider the evaluation when there are details. It’s a waste of time to analyze it now because government plans may change several times”, Mariusz Staniszewski from Noble Fund TFI added.

Fund managers worry that the companies will be controlled by the state. All of them believe this is a disadvantage.

“It’s better to invest in private companies. And these are going to be typical state-owned companies with managements probably consisting of relatives of politicians which is no guarantee for success”, Konrad Lapinski evaluated.

Wojciech Jasinski, the Minister of the Treasury, decided that energy groups will first list 10-15 percent of new shares. It looks like there will be no real privatization.

(PLN 1 = EUR 0.269)