Polish Business Survey
Surprise, surprise
Taking analysts and commentators by surprise, yesterday the stock market decided that a change is as good as a rest and went in the opposite direction to what everyone was expecting. What was particularly welcome was the news that this increase was backed by an increase in turnover. Leading the pack were stocks from the telecommunications sector and if the Nasdaq manages to keep up its good form then this tendency should last until the end of the week.
Energy companies unite
Polish Energy Partners and WrocławŐs Kogeneracja have announced that they intend to jointly invest in the urban heating system in Ostrów Świętokrzyski near Kielce. This would be the second joint project thecv two companies have worked on, the first being in Siedlce in eastern Poland. Both companies have entered the tender separately, however with the understanding that should one win then the other will join the team.
Rain stops play
In the first six months of this year brewers had a good excuse for going out for a night on the town and getting well and truly plastered on their own produce. The reason was a 12 percent increase in sales over last year and a record year promising. In July it all went wrong — bad weather meant that 50m litres of beer less were sold than in scorching July 1999. Putting it another way, there was a decrease in consumption of nearly 22 percent.
Sales results would have been even worse had Kompania Piwowarska, producers of Lech and Tychy, not maintained similar results as last year at around 62m litres sold.
Third best selling producer Okocim also came close to hitting last JulyŐs sales results, with 21m litres sold as compared to 22.6m litres in 1999.
The three largest players, KP, Żywiec and Okocim, took up 65 percent of the market in July. A poll carried out by Puls Biznesu suggests that July was very bad for the small producers who saw their market shares deteriorate badly in a month when they should be earning well.
More Klifs planned
Polinvest has announced that it is to build five Klif shopping centres in the next five to seven years at a cost of around PLN1bn.
Polinvest currently manages two Klif shopping centres in Gdynia and Warsaw. The construction of the new centres is to be financed by the major shareholder of the group, Norwegian businessman Magne Jordanger together with credits from BIG Bank Gdański.
Towns earmarked for new centres include Kraków, Poznań and Chorzów. The exact locations for new centres will be made at this monthŐs board meeting. This year will pass with no new developments from the company although MD Jacek Wesołowski is claiming some success in renting 90 percent of the office block next to the Warsaw Klif, in a year when many office blocks stayed empty. Plans for new centres include the now well worn trail of offices, multiplexes and entertainment centres including bowling alleys. Hypermarkets, however will not be present, allowing, in the opinion of Wesołowski, centres to be built in city centres.
Piotr Kaszyński of international estate agents Healey & Baker claims that shopping centres built in city centres have a good chance of success due to the near proximity of housing estates and easy access. The lack of hypermarkets is also in his opinion an advantage as it might defer protests from small traders making it easier for the local authority to grant planning permission.
Month for bids for Polmos Poznań
The treasury is planning to sell off Polmos Poznań this year and is hoping that potential buyers will know how to get the foreign registrations of vodkas produced by the company. The deadline for getting offers in is 8 September with the results being known two weeks later. Companies which have shown an interest include UDV, Eckes, Allied Domecq, Henkel & Sohnlein and perhaps Bacardi Martini.
Stollwerck either staying or leaving
The German Stollwerck Polska, one of the largest producers of chocolate in Poland has denied rumours that it is seeking to leave the country. It is even claiming that far from leaving, it is planning the purchase of Słupsk based Pomorzanka and also a factory in the south of the country.
Living on the never — never
Kredyt Bank has bought 26 percent of the shares of Lublin based credit agency Żagiel, the second largest company of its kind in Poland. The fact that Kredyt Bank was only able to buy a minority shareholding surprised analysts.
Żagiel was probably forced into this alliance against its will as it did not have the backing of a financial institution like its competitors. Market leader, Wrocław based Lukas is also the owner of Lukas Bank. AIG Credit, who take up third position is 100 percent owned by AIG Consumer Finance Group, one of the largest financial groups in the world. It is the same story for other players: PTF is largely owned by PKO BP, Best is entirely in the hands of BRE Bank and Invest-Kredyt belongs to Invest-Bank.