Polish Business Survey
Andoria supplying Daewoo
Andrychów based Andoria yesterday renewed supplying diesel engines for the Lublin based Daewoo. These engines are used in deliver vans.
Andoria stopped supplying Daewoo last week due to fears of the bankruptcy of the concern, however the Korean concern agreed to pay partially in advance.
Andoria has sold around 11,000 engines to Daewoo this year and this number should increase by another thousand before the end of the year.
Daewoo Motor Polska is Andoria’s largest client and takes one third of their entire production. Other clients include bus manufacturer Autosan
Andoria is hoping to increase exports, which currently account for twenty percent of sales. This year it started to supply elements for fuel lines for the Czech Motorpol. This contract is worth PLN1m. It will also soon start supplying engine pumps to a subsidiary of Ford in Belfast in the United Kingdom as well as engine blocks to the French subsidiary of John Deere. The company will also soon start supplying engines for Volkswagen in Germany.
Last year sales stood at PLN179m. This year it is expected to be PLN210m with fifteen percent growth planned for 2001.
No consolidation for chemicals
The chemical plants at Puławy, Kędzierzyn, Tarnów and Police are still waiting for a decision from the treasury concerning their privatisation strategy. The companies still may have to wait two to three months for the government to decide what it is going to do, however there are strong indications that the government does not want to consolidate the sector.
Consultants Corporate Development International prepared a privatisation strategy for the sector in 1998. A year later another programme was prepared by the industrial chemicals institute alongside Business Management and Finance. Both analyses came to the conclusion that the best way forward was consolidation.
Treasury will not sell Kęty stock
The treasury has decided not to sell its shares in the light metals producer Kęty despite having announced that it was going to do so. No reason was given for not going ahead with the sale although it is quite obvious that it is due to the current bear market on the stock exchange.
The treasury still has a more than 16 percent holding, eleven percent are earmarked for sale whilst five percent are to be used for reprivatisation aims.
Two financial institutions had shown interest in the share package. Enterprise Investors already has a 15 percent stake whilst Credit Suisse First Boston has twelve percent of the shares. Another potential buyer is Impexmetal.
The treasury would like to get around PLN60 per share and this would be too high for the above companies in the light of the current state of play on the bourse.
Puławy fears change
Privatisation of the Puławy chemical concern is not going to be easy. Fertiliser makes up more than 50 percent of its production and every privatisation plan has suggested that its production may be discontinued. The company intends to fight against this plan and is counting on finding an investor.
Selling ships before sinking
The treasury has agreed to a plan to sell five ships, which belong to Szczecin based carrier Transocean. The state owned company is heavily in debt and funds are needed urgently Potential buyers have already come forward.
Not to bank on
After a battle lasting several months and long negotiations, the European Union has agreed not to treat Polish co-operative savings and credit associations as banks.
They will therefore not come under EU banking law for things such as competition, state aid and credit financing.
Jelfa to speed restructuring
Jelenia Góra based Jelfa has decided to increase the pace of restructuring after good third quarter results in which it earned PLN20.3m. Management is not however changing its profit forecast for the whole year, which it set at PLN16.6m.
Closer to 20 percent
Pharmaceutical distributor Prosper’s aim of controlling twenty percent of the domestic market came close with the acquisition of Cefarm Częstochowa. However shareholders disputes could make this a very difficult to purchase to manage.