Looking for more
By : Roseanne Gerin
Telecom firm Tel-Energo is seeking a larger stake from the portal Arena in E-Connections, an Internet service provider (ISP) jointly owned by the two firms, a Tel-Energo company official said last week.
Following Arena's unsuccessful initial public offering (IPO) earlier this month, the two firms have been negotiating the terms of their joint investment in the dial-up Internet access company, which they created last December.
The telecom unit of the state-owned Polish Power Grid (PSE) wants "some changes and some corrections (in the terms) and a larger stake in E-Connections," said Robert Terentiew, Tel-Energo's spokesman. "We are not satisfied with this agreement and we have to change it."
He declined to provide further details, but added that Tel-Energo might issue a statement about the negotiations this week.
Jerzy Urbanowicz, the chairman of Tel-Energo, said previously that his company's involvement in E-Connections would be impossible without significant changes in terms. He did not return phone messages last week. Tomasz Mocarski, Arena's director of public relations, was also unavailable for comment.
Arena's business model is based on the combination of its portal with dial-up Internet access service provided by Tel-Energo's nationwide fiber-optic network. Arena originally intended to start its ISP service at the end of May.
Arena, which holds about a 51% stake in E-Connections, held the IPO to float about 45% of the company's shares mainly to raise money for its ISP activities. The Internet firm initially anticipated raising zl. 150 million-200 million ($375,000-$500,000) but reduced the amount to zl. 100 million ($250,000).
Earlier this month, however, investors purchased only about 13.8 million of the 21 million shares offered at zl. 4.2 each.
