Building a winner

Engineering and construction firm Pol-Aqua has begun its takeover of Mostostal Pomorze. Under the initial agreement of August 30, Pol-Aqua will buy 79.99 percent of Mostostal Pomorze's shares for zł.48 million.

Mostostal Pomorze operates in petro-chemistry, crude-oil processing, and building large steel constructions. It also specializes in off-shore services for oil rigs. The agreement is now awaiting the approval of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKIK).

Regulatory approval also awaits another of Pol-Aqua's acquisitions - that of Płock-based construction company Vectra.

"The [Vectra] takeover is in its final stage," Marek Stefański, the president of the management board of Pol-Aqua told WBJ, adding that the approval of UOKiK may be given as soon as this week. The companies will later be consolidated with other firms from Pol-Aqua's capital group.

The company is also working on the takeovers of two German pipeline companies for a total of zł.32 million. Due diligence on one of these is to be completed at the end of September. This month will probably also see the establishment of two offices in foreign markets - one in Russia and one in Kazakhstan. "[After the offices are established] we are going to apply to build gas pipelines for Petrolinvest," Stefański explained.

Another foreign investment which Pol-Aqua is preparing is the construction of a highway in Ukraine.

This year the company projects it will earn revenues of zł.935.4 million and net profit of zł.40 million. In 2008 Pol-Aqua hopes to earn about zł.1.5 billion in revenues and up to zł.80 million in profits.