Ciech offers State Treasury public offering strategy

Ciech, a company specializing in the trade of products from the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, have presented the State Treasury, which controls 52% of its capital, a strategy for the company's initial public offering, which is hoped will be accepted by years end. Ludwik Klinkosz, the president of Ciech, yesterday announced during a press conference that PricewaterhouseCoopers has estimated the value of the whole group at zł. 430 million. The shares which are to be sold on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) are to amount to almost 30% of the company's value, that is around zł. 120 million. Company representatives announced that this sum will be used to finance 80% of soda plants in the Ukraine, which are currently in the process of privatization, as the company's new strategy is based on concentration of its activities within this industry. Currently Ciech controls 100% of the domestic market of soda ash, and 85% of baking soda and is the only domestic exporter of these products. (Parkiet, p. 4) A.K.