CEE stepping stones

Asseco Poland, producer and developer of IT systems for banks and institutions, saw a 54-percent growth in sales and revenues of zł.336 million. Total net profit stood at zł.52 million, exceeding initial projections by zł.22 million.

Asseco Poland and its sister firm Asseco Slovakia are two major divisions of Asseco Capital Group's CEE operations. In Poland, the company provides services to about half of all banks.

The company started the year with a merger involving software firm Softbank. Subsequent plans include the restructuring of several firms to create two new companies within the group: Asseco Business Solutions - operating in ERP systems, outsourcing and e-learning - and Asseco Systems - operating in IT, networks and cable infrastructure. Both companies are to debut on the WSE, in Q3 of 2007 and H2 of 2008, respectively.

In 2007 the Group will continue its expansion abroad by creating Asseco Romania, Asseco Czech Republic and Asseco Balkans, with the intention of holding IPOs on the WSE for all of them. This is part of a plan to create a capital group called Software Centre, structured as a kind of federation, which will operate in the CEE region. Nonetheless, Western Europe will remain the most enticing market for the Asseco.

"Our goals lie in the West - we have always said so. Our current results give us the potential to enter those markets in 2008," said Andrzej Góral, CEO of Asseco Poland. "We are aware that we are a small fry compared to companies like SAP, but we need to prove that Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Romanians and Serbs can create products of significance in the IT business too. I believe it," he declared.