Polish Business Survey
Trawlers to continue fishing
An agreement has been reached whereby Polish trawlers will continue to be able to fish in the Bering Straight. Last year three deep sea fishing companies caught 14,000 tons of fish of the 40,000 that was theoretically allowed. Reasons for this shortfall were given as changes the Russians made to their five mile limit and bad weather. Two companies were then unwilling to pay the Russians the fishing licence fee. Licence fees have been paid up to 1998 and last years still have to be renegotiated.
The new agreement will allow Poland to take up to 35,000 tons of fish from the Bering Straight. Losing the rights to fish these waters would have been tantamount to bankruptcy for two companies. Poland has also won rights to fish in the waters of Peru, Mauritania, Morocco and South Korea although fishing licence fees are greater which is the reason the industry is now demanding greater subsidies. Warsaw offers fishermen USD16 per ton caught whereas Japan gives USD160.
Nysa Motor sells its vans
At the beginning of July Nysa Motor will start t sell its own delivery vans and Centrum Daewoo will cease to deal in them. Nysa Motor is 100 percent owned by Daewoo-FSO. Centrum Daewoo has been selling the vans since February 1998.
Investment fund wants steel mills
Józef Jędruch, the main shareholder in investment consortium Colloseum confirmed in an interview with Puls Biznesu that he is still interested in purchasing a 25-35 percent share of the Sendzimir steelworks together with a 70-80 percent share of the Florian mill. Neither of the mills is yet profitable although after restructuring and an expected upturn in the market the situation might change. A request to make these purchases was sent in mid June to the treasury. Funds will come above all from credits.
FT and unions in agreement
Rumours of difficulties faced by France Telecom concerning its 35 percent purchase of TPSA have been denied by the unions. Representatives of the employees in the former telecoms monopoly said that they are about to sign a final agreement with the French company concerning the social package. The agreement may even be signed today.
Energy share sale ends
Yesterday was the last day to apply for shares in Polski Koncern Naftowego Orlen . The greatest interest in the shares was shown in the first days of the offer when buyers could get a ten percent discount, interest dropped when the discount came down to four percent. The final cost of the shares will be known this morning although experts do not expect it to be higher than the PLN21.20 the shares can be bought for on the market.
IT managers get shares
Shareholders of Computer Service Support have agreed to a share issue to be taken as options for management. These shares will make up 4.7 percent of the capital of the company.
High future profits in IT
In the opinion of analysts from Wood&Company, the greatest chance of long term success belongs to companies such as computer producer Optimus from Nowy Targ in southern Poland and systems integrator Prokom from Gdynia. These analysts believe that this Ônew economyŐ is that which shows greatest potential for high profits in the future.
Energy Exchange needs a boost
Although energy producers and users say that they want to trade on the Energy Exchange, a lot would suggest that it will not be ready on 1 July. First of all documentation from the Economy Ministry has not been received, nor has permission from the Energy Regulation body (URE) concerning liberalising fixed tariffs and to cap it off the computerised accounting system still is not working.
Not good at Invest-Bank
Todays meeting of Invest-Bank will have to confirm last years PLN37m loss compared to a profit of PLN12.1m in 1998. The main shareholder of the bank is Polsat owner Zygmunt Solorz, who recently insisted on the bank opening a PLN45m reserve to cover it from losses linked to the fall of Bank Staropolski, which was run by Piotr Bykowski. Not long ago Solorz and Bykowski were business partners, now they are both accusing each other of fraud. Bykowski, who was arrested attempting to leave Poland a few months ago, claims that Solorz conned him when he invested in Invest-Bank and refused to help Bank Staropolski, Solorz claims he only broke the agreement when he realised how bad the situation with the latter bank was.