Arena's poor issue due to conflict with Tel-Energo?

Individual investors purchased only a disappointing 20% of shares of Arena.pl, the third biggest domestic portal, offered at zl.4.2 each. As a result the company will gain less than zl.88 million from the issue, much below the anticipated zl.100 million. This unimpressive outome is partly due to a conflict with Arena's partner Tel-Energo, owned by Polish Power Grid (PSE). Tel-Energo head Jerzy Urbanowicz said on Sunday that in his opinion any further cooperation with the portal in their jointly managed dial-up Internet provider E-connections is impossible without significant changes in terms. Despite the uncertain fate of E-connections, which constitutes Arena's core undertaking, the portal decided yesterday to sign an agreement with a consortium of banks providing E-connections with a zl.60 million loan. The portal will only go for the deal in case of a successful public offer and legal registration of the capital increment. Most analysts comment ed that Arena has no choice and must find a solution to its conflict with Tel-Energo, since it will be unable to find another telecom partner. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 27; Puls Biznesu, p. 4) M.K.