Amica hopes in end of year sales will boost poor results

Household equipment producer Amica has suspended negotiations with candidates for a strategic investor. Within several weeks it will attempt to sell its shares to domestic investors. At Friday's press conference the chairman of Amica's supervisory board, Jacek Rutkowski who is also the largest shareholder, announced that talks with LG of Korea had failed. "We have decided to give up attempts to win a sector investor. There are no plans to re-launch any negotiations," Rutkowski said refusing to disclose any further details. So far 2002 has turned out to be a bad year for the company. Sales revenues for the first half stand at 12.5% of the expected annual total, with a profit of zl. 1.3 million. Nevertheless Amica's president, Wojciech Kaszynski believes that the company will meet this year's sales forecast of zl. 955 million and a profit of zl. 14.9 million. "Sales of our products are heavily influenced by the seasons, our largest turnover is usually recorded at the end of the year," explained Kaszynski. (Gazeta Wyborcza, August 24-25, p. 27) A.Z