Polish Business Survey
DaimlerChrysler may produce buses
EvoBus, a subsidiary of the German DaimerChrysler is considering opening a Mercedes Benz bus and coach production facility in Poland. A decision will be made before the end of the year.
Konrad Keim, managing director of EvoBus Polska, said that if production goes ahead then the first bus will roll off the assembly line next year.
The company will be located in the south of the country and EvoBus is currently negotiating the lease of a factory. Konrad Keim does not want to say how many buses will be produced. It is however obvious that the facility will be financed directly from Germany and that it will be smaller than Volvo s plant in Wroclaw.
At the beginning there will be only assembly operations but then full production is hoped to be achieved after a few months.
The first concern of EvoBus is to improve its position on the difficult Polish market. First it needs to obtain the appropriate Polish user certificates for two coaches the Travego and Intouro as well as for two urban buses the O 345 and Citaro. It will also shortly increase the number of Mercedes bus dealers from four to six and Setra dealers from two to three.
A further idea is to sell pre-owned buses. It recently bought twenty used buses from authorities in Lodz with the idea of selling them again.
Last year twelve Mercedes-Benz buses were assembled in Jelcz. This year the Zasada works at Glownie will assemble two coaches for EvoBus.
However should production begin in Poland then no further vehicles will be assembled at the Zasada factories.
Pekao ups profit forecast
In an interview in today s Puls Biznesu Maria Wisniewska, MD of Pekao SA said that PLN1bn raised through increasing the capital of the company will be used for development and augmenting the bank s credit fund by about PLN12.5bn.
At the same time the bank is trying to obtain a 76.1 percent share in the Lithuanian Lietuvos Zemes Ukio Bankas. The cost of this purchase is not yet known as the bank is still negotiating with the Lithuanian treasury.
Pekao SA recently bought a bank in the Ukraine and changed its name to Pekao Ukraina. It is currently exploring similar opportunities in the Czech Republic and Croatia where its partner, Unicredito, recently acquired Splitska Banka. Pekao is interested in those banks which it could help to strengthen their position on the local market.
Wisniewska believes that consolidation of the Polish financial sector will occur quicker than the three years most analysts are predicting.
In this case Pekao SA would be interested in a merger with PKO BP which is still awaiting privatisation.
Three coal concerns are to be created
On Monday deputy premier Janusz Steinhoff agreed to merge the current seven coal concerns into three. Original plans had called for only two companies but the trade unions involved did not agree. Analysts consider that the need for the third concern also was due to the demand for coking coal. The new companies should be registered around 1 December.
Sales of coal are expected to fall by 2.1m tons by 2002. Prices in that year are estimated to be around PLN134.34 per ton.
Poor sales for Żywiec
In the first nine months of this year there has been a six percent increase in beer sales over the same period last year, or in other words, 1.9bn litres have been consumed.
Poor results for market leader Zywiec and good results for Kompania Piwowarska has led to speculation that the latter may take the number one sales spot away from the former.
Angry words over chemicals
In the fight to obtain the Rudniki chemical works, the companies with the most to gain are the Polish Ciech and the Dutch Leduc Chemie. The Dutch are now claiming that if Ciech wins Rudniki would lose clients to Akzo Nobel. Ciech is keeping quiet whilst the treasury is considering other ways of privatising the plant.