Polish Business Survey
Daewoo may have funds for tower
Consultants KPMG, who announced last year that they had let 6,000sqm of space in the Warsaw Trade Tower belonging to the ill-fated Daewoo may now be moving in this September. It would appear that either a Polish bank or the mother company in Korea has lent the funds necessary to complete the building which was one of the reasons why KPMG did not move in.
S&T purchases Largo Systems
Austrian distributor and systems integrator System Integration & Technology Distribution has entered the Polish market with the purchase of around EUR3m for a 100 percent share in Largo Systems.
Non-stop boozing
Predictions about record beer sales this year seem well on their way to being confirmed. In the first five months of the year 910m litres found their way onto the market, an eleven percent increase over the same period last year.
Treasury blocks fuel investment
In an attempt to make the privatisation of Rafineria Gdańska easier, the treasury has blocked the construction of a chemical and fuel terminal in the Port of Gdańsk by the German Oiltanking. This is the second such move following a similar project planned by the Swedish Preem in Gdynia. Investment plans will now have to wait until the privatisation of the refinery is complete.
Transsystem sees hope for 2000
Transsystem, based in Łańcut in south eastern Poland and producing auto-production lines, is hoping to finish contracts this year worth DEM35m. Its clients include major concerns such as Opel, Mercedes, Saab and Jaguar. The company is placing a great deal of hope in the planned production of the new Daewoo mini-van in Poland together with the construction of a logistics centre by Goodyear in Dębica.
Energy rivals may be allies
It could well be that the current rivalry between the French EdF with the German EnBW concerning the control of the Wroclaw power station Kogeneracja is no more than a pretence. It is possible that the two companies are collecting shares on the stock market for their joint account. Everything will be cleared up on 28 June when the first shareholders meeting will be held since the stock market entry of Kogeneracja.
Insurer proposes board changes
At todayŐs AGM of insurer Filar, management will be proposing an increase on the board from seven to nine people. The two places will be created for representatives of the German strategic investor R+V Versicherung.
Last year Filar increased turnover to PLN126.4m, which was an increase of 45 percent when compared to 1998. Furthermore in the first quarter of this year premiums collected showed an increase of 45 percent as compared to the previous year. Nonetheless the company which has a 1.2 percent share of the property insurance market noted a net loss of PLN6.9m last year and a loss of PLN4.3m in the first quarter of this year.
Orbis is ready for Accor
The treasury has until the end of this month to chose a strategic investor for Orbis. The front runner is the French Accor which is the only company from the hospitality sector to have put in a bid.
The treasury wants to sell between ten and 35.37 percent of the company and management of Orbis has not hidden its desire that the strategic investor should take as big a slice of the company as is possible. Orbis MD Maciej Grelowski said that if the French go for a small share then he will give up looking for a branch investor.
Orbis feels that it needs an international branch investor who could bring it into an international network as well as introducing know-how and guarantee a strong sales back-up.
The experience that Accor gained restructuring the hotel network in Hungary shows that the French know how to maintain the national flavour of their acquisitions. The contract to obtain Orbis would force Accor to stop building their own network in Poland, which is of course something that Orbis considers as being very important.
The Orbis MD thinks that those hotels that Accor has already built could become part of the Orbis network. In return Orbis can offer Accor excellent locations in Polish cities.
Grelowski notes that this year Orbis will spend nearly PLN400m on modernisation, only 20 percent of which comes from loans, the rest is from the company s own resources.
Maciej Grelowski, admits with regret one change that could occur once a strategic investor takes Orbis. He could find himself out of a job.