Ruch newsagent hopes IPO will fend off competition

The capital raised from the debut would be spent on acquisitions. The supervisory board of the 100% state-owned company only recently made the decision on privatization. The issue prospectus is about to be completed and the IPO date set for October seems quite likely. "We hope that the prospectus will be accepted by the Securities and Stock Exchange Commission (KPWiG) by the end of June. We want to conclude all formalities before July when new EU regulations regarding the stock exchange market enter force," said Ruch president Miron Maicki. The distributor wants to issue 1.2 million E-series shares and thus gather zł.120 million for acquisitions and investments for the next three years. Ruch wants to gather funds for development as it is faced with more and more powerful competition. In years 2005-07 the company intends to spend about zł.340 million on investments and take overs. Out of that amount zł.65 million would be earmarked from the firm's own capital and the rest would be funded with bank loans. (Puls Biznesu, pp. 1, 6) D.W.