Ray of hope despite Prokom's poor results

Systems integrator Prokom is expected to report on Thursday that its quarterly net profit halved from a year ago, when its earnings were inflated a by one-off major contract. Some analysts expect a zł. 17 million group net profit on sales of zł. 301 million, down from zł. 34 million and zł. 213 million respectively in the first quarter of 2002. "The results may look bad because the comparative base for last year is quite high, largely because of inflows from the social insurance administration ZUS," said Andrzej Kasperek, analyst with Citigroup's Bank Handlowy brokerage unit. "On top of that, there's the general weakness of the market - there were no big contracts during the quarter," he added. One ray of hope is that Prokom is expected to take provisions of about zł. 12 million in the quarter for consolidating goodwill from acquisitions, including its ongoing purchase of a stake in smaller rival Softbank. (Puls Biznesu, p. 5; Reuters) A.Z.