Refuse disposal firm Impel explains 'rubbish' results

Impel, the publicly listed security and refuse disposal company, recorded a zł.268.9 million income in the first half of the year, almost a half of the planned zł.537 million. The figures are even worse when it comes to Q2 net results where the company lost as much as zł.20.7 million. "This is due mainly to the sudden changes to the law," explained Impel's president and main shareholder, Grzegorz Dzik. 2004's Q1 was the last period when companies employing disabled people received a set sum of money for that, now they have to prove their factual costs. This sudden amendment caused Impel's listing to sink from about zł.26 to less than zł.12 per share in July. The company has difficulties calculating the costs of disabled employment. "The situation is unclear and ambiguous," said Dzik. In effect Impel had to lay off 600 out of its 25,000 employees and more reductions are expected. Nevertheless, the company's management says that the problems will not affect its liquidity as Impel saved zł.65 million from its share floatation. (Puls Biznesu, p. 7) D.W.