Arena.pl not crying the blues
Arena.pl had high hopes last year of being the first portal listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE). It even cast a starry-eyed gaze at a possible listing on America's Nasdaq. But now that Interia.pl is about to beat it to Poland's big board, Arena is not crying the blues.
Launched last April, Arena plans to raise zl. 170 million ($41.5 million) from its public offering scheduled for late March or early April. The company hopes to float about 40% of its total shares, said Tomasz Mocarski, Arena's public relations director. Arena has reserved 70% of this 40% flotation for institutional investors, and the remaining 30% for individuals, he said. With the proceeds raised from its public offering, Poland's fourth most popular portal plans to become an Internet service provider as well.
Arena claims to have 500,000 page views per month and 150,000 registered users. It's owned by CentralEurope.com, a U.S.-based investment firm that controls more than 99% of the company, with the remaining stake owned by company managers.
Like other portals, Arena's revenue figures are dependent on Internet ad sales, but Mocarski declined to provide numbers. Arena doubled its capital in the third quarter of 2000 to zl. 27 million ($6.59 million) by selling additional shares to CentralEurope.com, thus financing further development. Although Arena anticipated launching similar sites under the Arena name in the Czech Republic and Hungary, its hopes were dashed but not dissolved when global tech markets took a nosedive last year. Yet, Mocarski said the company is in the midst of talks to possibly establish partner sites in neighboring countries.
Arena anticipates an operating profit in 2002. Despite the downfalls of many dotcoms worldwide, Maria Skowron-Szafranska, an IT analyst at CDM Pekao Securities, said that Internet advertisers may offer some salvation to Polish portals. "In Poland the Internet ad market is growing," she said, pointing out that ad revenue for portals grew from zl. 10 million ($2.43 million) in 1999 to zl. 40 million ($9.75 million) in 2000. If the trend continues, she said, Arena could show a profit as early as next year.
