ITI Holdings buys major stake in Optimus for $103 million

Media company ITI Holding signed a preliminary contract with Optimus, one of Poland's biggest computer companies, to acquire a 33% stake from Bank Rozwoju Eksportu (BRE Bank) and the company's founder Zbigniew Jakubas. The transaction will be completed in the first quarter of 2001 and will be worth about zl. 471.5 million ($103 million). ITI will pay for 25% of the stake in cash and for 75% in bonds convertible to ITI shares when it enters the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) early next year. Optimus also owns 75% stake in one of the largest Polish Internet portals, Onet.pl, while two of its founders own 25% share. ITI will buy stake from these founders in exchange for 14% of Optimus shares and its own bonds, controlling over 25% stake in Onet.pl as the result of indirect ownership through BRE Bank' s and Zbigniew Jakubas' shares. Said ITI's Jan Wejchert, "This transaction with Optimus is a milestone in the history of ITI." (Gazeta Wyborcza, pp.1,26; Puls Biznesu, pp.1,4)