RG's net profits in 2000 expected to surge by 50%

Rafineria Gdanska's (RG) year-on-year net profits are expected to surge by 50% in 2000, according to Stanislaw Pokojski, deputy president of the domestic oil producer and distributor. He said the company's bottom line would amount to zl.173 million next year and added that this would be the largest amount ever made in RG's history. He gave as one reason for the jump the positive correlation of oil prices to final products on European markets. Also, sales are to rise from zl.4,939 million in 1999 to zl.6,929 million in 2000. Janusz Kwiatkowski, spokesman of Nafta Polska, the state-owned company seeking to unload RG, announced that the number of entities permitted to receive the information memorandum on RG's imminent privatization had increased from 10 to 13. He stressed that this was not the final list of companies, however, since the deadline to apply for the memorandum is Dec. 21. (Prawo i Gospodarka, pp.1,2)