In Brief: Auchan; Mobile phones; Telbank; SAPARD applications up; PZU

Auchan, the French hypermarket network, will invest zl. 500 million a year over the next five years to open a further 15 to 20 hypermarkets. To date, Auchan has invested $2.7 million since establishing its business in Poland in 1996. Tomorrow the company will open its latest store in Wola Park, Warsaw's new shopping mall. (Prawo i Gospodarka, p. 4) ... This year's revenue of mobile phone operators will exceed zl. 9.3 billion. There are 12.31 million mobile phones in use, which means 31.7% of Poles have one. According to UBS Warburg analysts, by the end of the year 34% of the public will have a mobile phone. (Prawo i Gospodarka, p. 6) ... Russian based Menatep, the owner of Internet Partners, and a major client of Telbank, is interested in purchasing the operator. (Prawo i Gospodarka, p. 4) ... Yesterday, 1,594 applications to the SAPARD program arrived at the Agriculture Restructuring and Modernization Agency (ARiMR). Over 1,500 of these came from local governments, who may receive up to euro 140 million from the fund. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B3) ... According to Gazeta Wyborcza it is possible that The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will attempt to take a 10% stake in the largest insurance company PZU to help break the impasse in negotiations between the State Treasury and Eureko who is seeking to gain control over the insurance giant. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 25) M.T