Agora ups AMS bid again following JCD counter-bid

Agora, Poland's largest media group, raised its offer price to zl.70 per share in Art Marketing Syndicate (AMS), the biggest Polish outdoor advertising company, upping its bid yesterday for the second time in as many days. Agora made its latest move after Jean Claude Decaux (JCD), a French advertising group, made a counter-bid of zl.66 per AMS share in response to Agora's offer of zl.63 on Monday. AMS is valued at almost zl. 300 million, according to the highest bid. For JCD this would be an opportunity for a strong presence in Eastern Europe as it could merge AMS with Europlakat. Taking over the billboard giant would enable Agora to diversify its advertising revenues currently earned mainly from the nation's leading newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza.The deadline for bid submission is today, but the final time limit for the transaction will depend, however, on the decision of the current majority stakeholder, BB Investment, controlling almost 65% of AMS shares. (Reuters, Prawo i Gospodarka, pp.9,24) M. S.-C.