ITI bondholders grow increasingly uneasy as new issue looms

Current bondholders of ITI Holdings with a June 2004 maturity, are now trying to sell their securities much below their face value. The investors first acquired the bonds from BRE Bank in 2001, "Now the bank is under pressure from investors wanting to reduce their commitments to the bonds," said a financial market analyst. According to experts, this signals that they bear high risk. Whatever the truth, this is a not a good omen for a new EUR 150 million bond issue being prepared by ITI. One analyst is optimistic and believes that these securities could yield a 15% return. The nominal interest rate of the bonds is 2% over the LIBOR rate. ITI deputy president, Brunon Valsangiacomo, assured that the media concern is in a good financial state. (Puls Biznesu, pp. 1, 7) M.M.