PGNiG issue profits warning as import costs rise

The Energy Regulation Office (URE) allowed PGNiG to increase prices for end-users by an average of 7.5%, while it turned out on Monday that the growth is too small to rescue profits. "As a result of the increased prices of imported gas and permission to increase tariffs, the profitability of the company might decrease in Q4 2005," announced the company in a communiqué. Last year the firm posted a net profit of zł.1.1 billion, while after H1 of the current year the figure stood at zł.516.6 million. Analysts expected that the company might end the year with roughly zł.1.3 billion in the black. Marek Kossowski, president of PGNiG, was continuously refusing to reveal a full-year forecast. According to some analysts the management of PGNiG might not have underestimated the level of net profit on purpose. (Parkiet, p. 1; Puls Biznesu, p. 10) M.M.