Agora confident it will meet 2002 revenue expectations

The consolidated net profits of the press publisher group Agora were almost 75% lower in the second quarter than for the same period last year. However, sales revenues increased to zl. 217.3 million and were 4.2% higher than for the second quarter of 2001. The drop in revenues is mostly due to the depressed state of the advertising market. Analysts still see these results as positive as they were expecting them to be even worse. Agora yesterday said that their consolidated revenues for the whole year should remain at a similar level as for 2001, which amounted to zl. 777 million. This will result from additional savings made as the group takes over radio stations, newspapers and the AMS outdoor advertising company. "Revenues would be even 10% lower than last year without taking over new companies," said Agora management board member Zbigniew Bak. He denied rumors that the company is interested in investing in television station TV4, as the broadcaster is unlikely to show profits in the foreseeable future. (Prawo i Gospodarka, p. 5; Parkiet, p. 7) M.M.