In Brief: PKN favors OMV, BRE's gloomy forecast, Softbank's zl. 16m deal

CEO of PKN Orlen Andrzej Modrzejewski admitted that even though the government had granted exclusive negotiation rights to Hungarian MOL for the privatization deal, he favored the Austrian OMV to become the investor. "Not only me but the whole board of directors was in favor of a merger with OMV, mainly because the economic situation around the world is complicated. Orlen is a company which is financially stable, similarly to OMV. MOL, however, has problems with its gas department," he said. (Parkiet, p.2) ... BRE Bank will decrease its 2001 profit forecasts from zl.404 million to zl.325 million - zl.360 million, after announcing zl.236.8 million net profits for the past 9 months compared with zl.292.3 million for the same period last year. (Parkiet, p.5) ... Softbank has signed a deal worth zl.16 million with a client from the public administration sector. The contract concerns the delivery of computer related services. (Parkiet, p.4) A.K.