Poor showing for Kopex after Vietnamese withdraw from mines deal

Mining concern Kopex's shares fell 9% following news that the company lost a contract with Vietnamese Vinacoal to build or modernize a series of coal mines. As Kopex have not started the investment yet, it seems like investors were disappointed with lost profits. The Katowice-based company had been in talks with their Vietnamese partners since the beginning of 2003 and they managed to sign an initial agreement in April 2004 worth more than $ 105 million. Kopex was to modernize three coal mines and the only problem was financing the works. The Ministry of Finance promised to grant the Vietnamese government a loan that would cover up to 85% of the investment but on Thursday Vinacoal decided to withdraw from the deal. The reason given was that the Vietnamese side calculated they will not meet the projected effectiveness of the investment. Last week was generally poor for Kopex, which revealed a Q2 net loss of zł.170,000, knocking 23% off its share standing (Parkiet, p. 3) D.W.