France Telecom may be preparing zl.20 TPSA share offer

Shares in telecoms giant Telekomunikacja Polska (TPSA) rose sharply in Tuesday trading on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, amid rumors that France Telecom was prepared to pay zl.20 per share to increase its stake in the company. The Dow Jones press agency in Poland quotes sources "close to the Treasury" as saying that France Telecom would make the zl.20 per share offer official by Friday. However, no information was available about how big a stake France Telecom intended to buy. Shares in TPSA rose by 7.8% in Tuesday trading, to close at zl.13.15. Analysts point out, however, that the Treasury might find it difficult to accept zl.20 per share, since this is little more than half of the zl.38 paid by the consortium led by France Telecom when it acquired a 35% stake in TPSA last year. The consolidated second quarter results published by TPSA on Tuesday show that profits were down slightly from the same period a year ago, at zl.179.8 million, although revenues, at zl.4.3 billion, were up by 10.2%. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 17; Prawo i Gospodarka, p. 11; Parkiet, p. 1) P.W.