ITI to earn $100 million on Warsaw Stock Exchange issue

According to Puls Biznesu sources, multimedia group ITI is planning a new share issue amounting to $200 million for mid-year, with 80% for the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) and 20% in Luxembourg. The holding will receive half of the revenues and invest it in multimedia projects such as television news channel TVN 24 and the expansion of its chain of Multikino cinemas, with each outlet costing from $12 to $14 million. “Launching TVN 24 will cost us $20 million,” said ITI president Jan Wejchert. The second half of the revenues will be transferred as paymet to BRE Bank, Zbigniew Jakubas and former Onet shareholders, all owners of a 33% stake in computer producer and distributer Optimus before ITI acquired it. The company bought the shares because the computer producer owns 75% stake in Internet portal Onet.pl, and the holding is interested in controlling it. “We have to think about the future. Even now, it is hard to imagine TVN’s [private television] or cinema’s existence without the Internet...,” said Wejchert. (Puls Biznesu, pp.1,7)M.M.