Agora and Advent get the nod from state to advise on WSiP sell-off process

The Treasury Ministry has chosen Agora and a financial investment consortium going by the name of Advent International and CA IB PRE IPO Investment 1 to advise on the sale of a 60% stake in the School and Pedagogical Editing House (WSiP). The decision means that six other bidders, who until the last moment expected the decision to be further postponed, will be excluded from taking part. Surprisingly, no open pension fund was invited to participate. Instead, the two chosen entities have been given five working days to carry out business research into WSiP and fourteen days to submit their final proposals. At the end of April, the Securities and Stock Exchange Commission decided to let WSiP go public in two tranches, with 3.13 million shares (a 10% stake) allocated for individual investors and a further 4.69 million (a 15% stake) available to institutional investors. WSiP's flotation is slated for September. (Puls Biznesu p. 4) M.G.