In Brief: Sale of Orbis shares; New accounting for Netia; ARiMR; PKP; Lukoil

By the end of September the Treasury Ministry will sell its remaining 4% stake of Orbis to Accor of France. At present the French company owns 27% of Orbis shares. Currently Orbis has cash assets of zl. 67 million at its disposal and an open credit line in Credit Lyonnais. (Gazeta Wyborcza, August 24-25, p. 27) ... Telecom operator Netia, the only Polish company listed on Nasdaq, has to accept the new restricted American accounting regulations. "We have received a note from Nasdaq on this issue," said Jolanta Ciesielska, a spokeswoman for Netia. The company should not have any problems with adjusting to the new laws as its accounting system was recently positively evalued by a court during recent legal proceedings (Puls Biznesu, p. 6) ... The Agriculture Modernization and Restructuring Agency (ARiMR) is planning to purchase around 350 new cars whose value is estimated at zl. 50 million. This has caused some controversy given the poor condition of the state budget. (Puls Biznesu, p. 4) ... A consortium of banks intends to extend the term of a zl. 700 million loan to Polish State Railways (PKP) until the end of July 2003. PKP failed to carry out a bond issue of zl. 1 billion to help pay off the loan. (Prawo i Gospodarka, p. 3) ... Russian oil concern Lukoil maintains that it is interest in the privatization of Gdansk Refinery despite a rumor which had appeared in Gazeta Wyborcza saying that Lukoil withdrew from the consortium with Rotch Energy. (Puls Biznesu, p. 4) A.Z.