Warsaw (Puls Biznesu) – The Ministry of the Treasure believes that Grupa Energetyczna Poludnie (GEP), Poland’s southern energy group which is being created now, would be listed in 2007. Experts say it is very improbable.
The companies which will build the GEP holding want to found a holding company till the end of this year. According to Dariusz Lubera, the deputy CEO of Enion, one of the two energy distributors in GEP, the companies are waiting for the decision of the Ministry of the Treasure to start the formal processes. The decision may be made as early as today. The process of building GEP will last several months. The holding may be worth some dozen billion zlotys. The Ministry of the Treasure believes that the company may be listed in 2007.
The Securities and Exchange Commission requires a three-year-long history of the companies planning an IPO. There are exceptions, however.
“As far as a big company with a high value of the stock is concerned, the management of the Warsaw Stock Exchange may approve of such a transaction”, Michal Urbanowicz from the stock exchange admitted. Despite that experts are sure that the privatization of GEP next year is very improbable.
“The issue prospectus must contain a thorough business plan. For such a group it will take at least 18 months to prepare it. First, a decision concerning the business model must be made. Then, the knowledge concerning the financial sources is needed while the way long-term contracts will be solved has not been described by the government yet”, an anonymous representative of a consulting company said.
The following companies build GEP: EnergiaPro (sales PLN 3.2 billion, or EUR 809.6m, net income 56.4m), Enion (sales PLN 4.2 billion, net income PLN 126.4m in 2005), ESW (sales PLN 0.2 billion, net loss PLN 1.4m), PKE (sales PLN 3.6 billion, net income PLN 281.2m), and ZEDO (sales PLN 1.2 billion, net income PLN 21.3m).
(PLN 1 = EUR 0.253)