Polish Business Survey
Ecologists stop fuel terminal
A court has revoked the permission obtained by Porta Petrol to modernise their fuels terminal at Świnoujście. The court thus accepted the arguments placed by a local ecological organisation. Modernisation, which had laid dormant for four years, was to start next month. Porta Petrol and its parent company Stocznia Szczecińska Porta Holding intend to appeal the decision. Delays in modernising the fuels terminal have already cost between PLN10m — PLN20m.
Wojciech Tłuścik of the ecology pressure group Estuarium claims that the localisation of the terminal could potentially lead to an ecological disaster. This opinion is not shared by the directors of Porta Petrol who claim that the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Transport all back the project.
Fuel would be supplied to Poland from producers in Sweden, Norway and Denmark.
Eckes interested in Polmos
The German alcohol and juice producer Eckes has announced that it is interested in buying a share of Polmos, it is rumoured that it could be Polmos Zielona Góra that has grabbed their attention. The reason for this is that the Germans are interested in a local brand and the Zielona Góra company is the owner of the best selling brand in Poland, Luksusowa.
Eckes has a 3.5 percent share of the European alcohol market. It entered Poland in 1996 when it bought a share of the Arona company from Łęczyca for PLN60m. It has since invested a further PLN20m and has earmarked PLN15m — PLN20m in marketing and improving the sales techniques of Arona.
Eckes is selling brands such as Clippo, Hohes C, Granini and Owocowy Tygrysek in Poland which gives it a six percent share of the market.
Last year sales from non alcoholic products hit DEM1bn and alcohol DEM1.4bn. It is fourth place in the European sales league table after UDV, Pernod Ricard and Allied Domecq.
Better steel results
Iron and steel production gave reason for optimism when the results for the first quarter showed a 36 percent increase over the same period last year. Total production came to 2.6m tons.
Romuald Talarek of the Iron and Steel Chamber of Commerce said that greater use of these metals had been noted not only in Poland but also in the EU. He believes that if this trend continues then around 10m tons of steel will be produced this year.
At the same time the income of the steel mills is also increasing. In the first quarter of last year it was PLN745m, this year it was greater than PLN1bn.
However Romauld Talarek also noted that a greater demand for steel will largely be met by imports and not domestic production. A further USD2bn needs to be invested in the domestic sector to bring it up to international standards. Last year only five companies posted a profit, the loss for the sector as a whole was PLN1.24bn. In 1999 8.8m tons of steel were produced and in 1998 9.9m tons.
Elterix invests PLN150m in new phones
Local telecoms operator Elterix is to invest PLN150m in telephones in the next two years. PLN34m is to be used this year alone in Gdynia. The owners of Elterix, systems integrator Prokom, the Polpager Group and Zygmunt SolorzŐs Tele-Audio are considering going public. Stock market entry is not expected for another year yet.
Stalexport in conflict with WRJ
Stalexport has accused Walcownia Rur Jedność (WRJ) of losing control over costs on the construction of a pipeline manufacturing project. In turn, WRJ has accused Stalexport of causing the delays that have put eight months onto the schedule and will add at least PLN100m onto the PLN475m project.
BGŻ buys systems integrator
Bank Gospodarki Żywnościowej will buy the Łódż based systems integrator Wonloka. This is bad news for Softbank who will lose a contract with the bank worth between PLN200m — PLN300m.
Eureko gives up retirement stake
The Dutch Eureko holding which holds a 45 percent holding in the Ego retirement fund has announced that it will sell its shares. BIG Banku GdańskiŐs pension company which currently has a 55 percent holding will take up the shares from Eureko giving it a 100 percent share in the fund.
IVP to invest USD16m in Arena.pl
Internet Ventures Poland has announced that it will invest USD16m in internet projects in this country mainly in the portal Arena. pl which came on line yesterday.