Fiat and General Motors are to produce engines together

Auto manufacturers Fiat Polska and General Motors (GM) are to invest about zl. 1 billion in a joint venture to produce high-efficiency engines at a Fiat plant in Bielsko-Biala. They want to produce 460,000 engines per year, the majority of which will be exported. Fiat is to shift production of its vehicles to Tychy. Negotiations should be completed by August and production could begin in early fall. Fiat and GM are also planning to cooperate in procuring supplies for the new plant. Last year, Fiat said it would set up a plant in Bielsko-Biala on condition it received tax incentives.The government responded by extending the Katowice special economic zone (KSSE) to encompass the Bielsko-Biala region. This entitles Fiat to tax breaks of 100% if they get the project up and running before the fall deadline. Tax breaks in SSEs are scheduled to be reduced to 50% and then phased out altogether. (Puls Biznesu, page 4, Gazeta Wyborcza, page 23) S.M. Agora employees bundle their shares to get better price The employees of Agora, publisher of daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, have sold zl. 181.5 million worth of shares in the first-ever organized sale of employee stocks on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE). Last year, Agora conducted the largest employee share-offering by a private company in Poland. People who had worked for Gazeta Wyborcza since it was founded in May 1989 were entitled to buy up to 5,160 shares at the nominal value of zl.1. Today, such a portfolio would be worth over zl. 500,000. Three days ago, the shares became eligible for trading on the WSE. Instead of deluging the market with their shares, causing the price to drop, the 1,205 employees decided to sell their shares in an off-the-floor transaction, carried out by investment bank Schroder Salomon Smith Barney. Most of the shares have been purchased by institutional investors, foreign as well as domestic. Agora employees still own some three-quarters of the shares they are eligible to sell. (Gazeta Wyborcza, page 1) T.J.