Asseco's appetite

In a move to placate its own shareholders, Polish IT firm Asseco has cut its offer for a 23.7-percent stake in Prokom Software by 17 percent. The initial offer of around zł.200 per share, posed two weeks ago, valued Prokom's stock at well above market value, which some of Asseco's investors found objectionable. The new proposal is worth around zł.580 million, down from the original zł.700 million.

Asseco also noted that it would trade 1.82 of its own shares for each share in Prokom Software not held by Ryszard Krauze. Asseco's stock rose 9.3 percent on the day's trade after the amended offer was announced.

The marriage of Asseco and Prokom Software would create the largest IT firm in the CEE region. It would have an estimated market value of zł.5.4 billion and net profit of around zł.300 million.

Last week Asseco also announced plans to make almost a dozen new acquisitions over the next six months, with the total outlay expected to be around zł.488 million. "We have held negotiations with 10 companies, whose combined profit is zł.84 million," said Piotr Jeleński, vice president of Asseco. He added that the zł.488 million needed for the acquisitions could be financed through a share issue.

The firm has also recently expanded into Germany. Asseco's newly established daughter firm, Asseco Germany, two weeks ago purchased an 80-percent stake in German company AP Automation + Productivity (AP A+P), a producer of ERP systems for SMEs. The transaction, valued at E10 (zł.37.8) million, both strengthened AP A+P's position on the German market and gave Asseco a beachhead from which to make further acquisitions. (Reuters)