Atlas to finance its giant cement plant via investors or by share floatation

"We are in negotiations with three serious investors for this project," said Tomasz Skalski, investment coordinator of Atlas. Company representatives admitted that the interested parties are financial investors, but he refused to reveal what stake in the new venture they would acquire. If the talks turn out to be in vain, then the company will float shares on the bourse. The new facility is to produce roughly 800,000-1 million tones of cement annually. "Cement plants in Poland currently sell slightly over 11 million tones, while their total capacity is 18 million tones annually. There are no clear signs that the surplus could be used any time soon," said Andrzej Tekiel, president of Lafarge Cement Polska. (Puls Biznesu, pp. 1, 7) M.M.