OBOP sale clears all hurdles to finally reach the finish line
Although the value of the stake was not disclosed, when Taylor Nelson began talking to TVP early last year it was reportedly ready to pay $1.6 million. Taylor Nelson merged last year with France's Sofres, and the newly created company will take over OBOP.
TVP will continue to hold 40% of OBOP, although the public broadcaster is itself ultimately owned by the Treasury Ministry. It was that ownership structure that partly delayed OBOP's sale, as TVP's management had to construct the deal, the Treasury Ministry had to approve it, and the Competition and Consumer Protection Office (UOKiK) had to sign off on it as well.
"For the first time TVP will be a minority shareholder, and that will take some time to get used to," said Pawel Sosnowski, head of TVP's information office.
TVP's board decided to approve the sale after the UOKiK gave its go-ahead two weeks ago. The new management board of OBOP will include two members appointed by Taylor Nelson - Wojciech Pawlak and Mike Kirkham - as well as one appointed by TVP - Witold Knychalski.
The change in ownership brings back Pawlak, who headed up OBOP until last June when he was removed by TVP's management board.
OBOP executives had been pushing for their company to be sold. OBOP had competed, rather unsuccessfully, with fellow research firm AGB Polska for the last two years. While OBOP has one of the market's key clients - TVP - AGB has managed to sweep up almost everybody else.
One reason for that is clients saw OBOP's relationship with TVP as a little too incestuous.
"Now we hope this will change," said Barbara Pudlo, spokeswoman for OBOP. "We definitely hope that more clients will now see us as an independent data provider and not as a daughter company of TVP."
New on board
A rather cold fall welcomed three new senior staffers at advertising agency J. Walter Thompson/Parintex - Timothy Hennessy, Slim Foster and Brian Tucker.
The new staffers replace those who left the agency late this summer (See WBJ, Aug. 31-Sept. 6, 1998). Along with hiring the employees, the agency also reorganized its structure, said General Manager Frederic Winckler.
The end result is that three major departments will have new directors. Hennessy will take over the client service department, which now will be split into four independent teams.
The reorganization also created a new team to work with J. Walter Thompson's largest client, digital station Wizja TV. The team that used to work on the account emigrated to Ammirati Puris Lintas to work on telephone company Telekomunikacja Polska (TPSA).
Additional changes include the replacement of Ian Peck, former creative director of the agency, who left last month. Foster will take over that job. Finally, Tucker will head the integrated communications branch dealing with "everything that is not direct advertising," Winckler said.
Wizja, which is expected to spend $20 million on the media blitz following its Sept. 17 launch, has just begun its TV, print and billboard spots.
Closed file
After publishing the article "Eurobuild and Estates News slug it out in war of words" (Medialog, Sept. 28-Oct. 4, 1998), the WBJ received a letter from Peter Nielsen & Partners, the law firm that represents European Construction Research (ECR), informing us that a police investigation into ECR's publishing activities in Poland had been dropped as of Sept. 25. The police closed the investigation while the WBJ's pages were at the printer.
The investigation was mentioned in an article about an ongoing dispute between two real estate magazines, Eurobuild Poland and Estates News.
The police had been looking into ECR's publication, Eurobuild Poland. ECR had never registered the name in Poland, but contended that it did not need to because the publisher, which is based in Denmark, is not a Polish company.
"We declare that the magazine, which has been published since 1992 in Denmark, is not a Polish magazine, and thus the publisher is not obliged to register the publication in Poland," said the letter signed by Robert Kamionowski, the company's legal representative.
Our good name
Bank Zachodni said two weeks ago that it will sue news magazine Polityka for libel after the Wroclaw-based bank was included on a list of the largest tax evaders among Polish state-owned companies.
In an article entitled "State Paupers: Large state enterprises disregard tax responsibilities," Polityka placed Bank Zachodni 20th in a ranking of state-owned companies with the largest debts to the Polish state. According to the ranking, which hit newsstands on Sept. 26, Bank Zachodni is in debt to the state to the tune of zl. 30 million ($8.33 million).
"We consider including us in this title ... is slandering the good name of Bank Zachodni," President Tadeusz Gluszczuk said. "This is extremely unnecessary in this particularly important period of privatization."
Bank Zachodni is slated to be privatized late this year or early next year.
At issue is a deal the bank negotiated with the Polish state when it took over the agricultural development bank Rolbank from the state treasury in 1996. As a part of the acquisition agreement, Bank Zachodni got a three-year tax holiday worth zl. 30 million, which will come due in June 1999, Gluszczuk said.
According to Gluszczuk, the article has created a distracting side-show for the bank at a critical moment in its privatization process and led customers to question Zachodni's financial health and reliability.
"The reaction was very big. We had a lot of telephone calls, letters from individuals and businesses demanding explanations whether this was true or not," Gluszczuk said. "Lately we have spent a lot of time on the problem ... that's why we think it's important to calm the atmosphere."
For its part, Polityka last week printed a correction saying that high amount of the bank's liability to the state is the reason why the bank appeared on the list. However, the author of the piece, Mariola Balicka, admitted that the label did not apply to Bank Zachodni's particular situation.
The timing of the gaffe seems to be as important as the information itself. Gluszczuk said last week that Bank Zachodni would probably announce the particulars of its privatization plans in late October or early November.
"At this time when work is underway about shaping the (privatization) concept, information about Bank Zachodni has especially important significance to us," he said.
Analysts said that while the information published by Polityka was misleading, it probably would not affect the bank adversely. "This is a liability, not a debt," said Lubomir Charchalis, an analyst with Wood & Co. "I think for experts, for all people who know a little about finance, it should not have too much impact, if it is precisely explained by the management."
Not empty handed
Grey Warszawa Oct. 5 piled up the most wins at the iDEA Awards, which was put together by advertising agency ABK & Co. In addition to being named the agency of the year, Grey also walked away with a trophy for best campaign of the year, for its Bosman beer ad, as well as five other awards: for copy, billboard ad, cinema ad, TV spot and radio promotion. Side-by-side with Grey on the pedestal was Leo Burnett, which took five awards, Corporate Profiles DDB with two, and DMB&B, Double N, BBDO Warszawa, Machina Press and Definition Design with one each.
- Juliet D. Golden contributed to this report
TVP will continue to hold 40% of OBOP, although the public broadcaster is itself ultimately owned by the Treasury Ministry. It was that ownership structure that partly delayed OBOP's sale, as TVP's management had to construct the deal, the Treasury Ministry had to approve it, and the Competition and Consumer Protection Office (UOKiK) had to sign off on it as well.
"For the first time TVP will be a minority shareholder, and that will take some time to get used to," said Pawel Sosnowski, head of TVP's information office.
TVP's board decided to approve the sale after the UOKiK gave its go-ahead two weeks ago. The new management board of OBOP will include two members appointed by Taylor Nelson - Wojciech Pawlak and Mike Kirkham - as well as one appointed by TVP - Witold Knychalski.
The change in ownership brings back Pawlak, who headed up OBOP until last June when he was removed by TVP's management board.
OBOP executives had been pushing for their company to be sold. OBOP had competed, rather unsuccessfully, with fellow research firm AGB Polska for the last two years. While OBOP has one of the market's key clients - TVP - AGB has managed to sweep up almost everybody else.
One reason for that is clients saw OBOP's relationship with TVP as a little too incestuous.
"Now we hope this will change," said Barbara Pudlo, spokeswoman for OBOP. "We definitely hope that more clients will now see us as an independent data provider and not as a daughter company of TVP."
New on board
A rather cold fall welcomed three new senior staffers at advertising agency J. Walter Thompson/Parintex - Timothy Hennessy, Slim Foster and Brian Tucker.
The new staffers replace those who left the agency late this summer (See WBJ, Aug. 31-Sept. 6, 1998). Along with hiring the employees, the agency also reorganized its structure, said General Manager Frederic Winckler.
The end result is that three major departments will have new directors. Hennessy will take over the client service department, which now will be split into four independent teams.
The reorganization also created a new team to work with J. Walter Thompson's largest client, digital station Wizja TV. The team that used to work on the account emigrated to Ammirati Puris Lintas to work on telephone company Telekomunikacja Polska (TPSA).
Additional changes include the replacement of Ian Peck, former creative director of the agency, who left last month. Foster will take over that job. Finally, Tucker will head the integrated communications branch dealing with "everything that is not direct advertising," Winckler said.
Wizja, which is expected to spend $20 million on the media blitz following its Sept. 17 launch, has just begun its TV, print and billboard spots.
Closed file
After publishing the article "Eurobuild and Estates News slug it out in war of words" (Medialog, Sept. 28-Oct. 4, 1998), the WBJ received a letter from Peter Nielsen & Partners, the law firm that represents European Construction Research (ECR), informing us that a police investigation into ECR's publishing activities in Poland had been dropped as of Sept. 25. The police closed the investigation while the WBJ's pages were at the printer.
The investigation was mentioned in an article about an ongoing dispute between two real estate magazines, Eurobuild Poland and Estates News.
The police had been looking into ECR's publication, Eurobuild Poland. ECR had never registered the name in Poland, but contended that it did not need to because the publisher, which is based in Denmark, is not a Polish company.
"We declare that the magazine, which has been published since 1992 in Denmark, is not a Polish magazine, and thus the publisher is not obliged to register the publication in Poland," said the letter signed by Robert Kamionowski, the company's legal representative.
Our good name
Bank Zachodni said two weeks ago that it will sue news magazine Polityka for libel after the Wroclaw-based bank was included on a list of the largest tax evaders among Polish state-owned companies.
In an article entitled "State Paupers: Large state enterprises disregard tax responsibilities," Polityka placed Bank Zachodni 20th in a ranking of state-owned companies with the largest debts to the Polish state. According to the ranking, which hit newsstands on Sept. 26, Bank Zachodni is in debt to the state to the tune of zl. 30 million ($8.33 million).
"We consider including us in this title ... is slandering the good name of Bank Zachodni," President Tadeusz Gluszczuk said. "This is extremely unnecessary in this particularly important period of privatization."
Bank Zachodni is slated to be privatized late this year or early next year.
At issue is a deal the bank negotiated with the Polish state when it took over the agricultural development bank Rolbank from the state treasury in 1996. As a part of the acquisition agreement, Bank Zachodni got a three-year tax holiday worth zl. 30 million, which will come due in June 1999, Gluszczuk said.
According to Gluszczuk, the article has created a distracting side-show for the bank at a critical moment in its privatization process and led customers to question Zachodni's financial health and reliability.
"The reaction was very big. We had a lot of telephone calls, letters from individuals and businesses demanding explanations whether this was true or not," Gluszczuk said. "Lately we have spent a lot of time on the problem ... that's why we think it's important to calm the atmosphere."
For its part, Polityka last week printed a correction saying that high amount of the bank's liability to the state is the reason why the bank appeared on the list. However, the author of the piece, Mariola Balicka, admitted that the label did not apply to Bank Zachodni's particular situation.
The timing of the gaffe seems to be as important as the information itself. Gluszczuk said last week that Bank Zachodni would probably announce the particulars of its privatization plans in late October or early November.
"At this time when work is underway about shaping the (privatization) concept, information about Bank Zachodni has especially important significance to us," he said.
Analysts said that while the information published by Polityka was misleading, it probably would not affect the bank adversely. "This is a liability, not a debt," said Lubomir Charchalis, an analyst with Wood & Co. "I think for experts, for all people who know a little about finance, it should not have too much impact, if it is precisely explained by the management."
Not empty handed
Grey Warszawa Oct. 5 piled up the most wins at the iDEA Awards, which was put together by advertising agency ABK & Co. In addition to being named the agency of the year, Grey also walked away with a trophy for best campaign of the year, for its Bosman beer ad, as well as five other awards: for copy, billboard ad, cinema ad, TV spot and radio promotion. Side-by-side with Grey on the pedestal was Leo Burnett, which took five awards, Corporate Profiles DDB with two, and DMB&B, Double N, BBDO Warszawa, Machina Press and Definition Design with one each.
- Juliet D. Golden contributed to this report
