Gadu-Gadu equity on sale, but at what price?

The Warsaw Equity Holding fund, which owns a 80% stake in sms-express.com which in turn owns Gadu-gadu, is looking for an investor interested in purchasing a part, or all of the shares in the company, in which it has so far invested zł.1 million. Today, the stock is probably worth tens of million but, "Potential investors will decide on the final value of the company," said Krzysztof Szalwa, deputy president of sms-express.com and the fund. Previous talks with buyers were unsuccessful and among the interested companies were Onet.pl and Interia.pl. According to information, one of the portals offered zł.30 million which was not enough for the largest shareholder. Last year sms-express.com posted a net profit of zł.644,000, which should be substantially improved in 2004. (Puls Biznesu, p. 10) M.M.