Bioton IPO may mean big changes for Grupa Prokom

The initial share price was zł.2.75 per share. As many individual investors were interested in buying them, the subscriptions were reduced by 95%. Company representatives are proud of the fact that this is the first biotechnological company to debut on the WSE. Bioton, a subsidiary of Grupa Prokom, is one of only four producers of recombined human insulin in the world, and thus can count on high revenues from that drug alone. In an interview for Puls Biznesu Ryszard Krauze, Grupa Prokom president and head of Bioton supervisory board said, "Bioton is now number 2 in the group, right behind our IT projects. But its possibilities may make it our most important enterprise in three or four years." Bioton is about to enter the Russian market, and it is also preparing its expansion into Asia. The IPO should help the company withstand difficult competition on the expanding biotechnology market. (Puls Biznesu, pp. 1, 10-14; Parkiet, p. 5) D.W.