Shareholders nothing to fear say merging firms

Presidents of the two merging construction companies Mostostal Siedlce and Polimex-Cekop, Aleksander Jonek and Konrad Jaskółka respectively, announced that no shareholder shall be hurt during the merger process. According to analysts minor shareholders from flourishing Mostostal will lose on the takeover of Polimex, which is showing poor financial results and has huge debts. "The fear is caused by lack of knowledge about Polimex's real advantages. It is a very good company, but recently having very bad press," said Jonek. "By merging the two companies we plan to create a company of huge bargaining power. Besides that, the bad times for Polimex are over," added Jaskółka. The presidents of the two companies plan to record joint revenues of zł.1.1 billion by the end of 2003. This means that after the merger, Polimex Mostostal Siedlce (as this will be the new name of the venture), will become the second largest construction company listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE). "If adding one plus one will be more than two than we have a serious competitor. If the result will be anything else we do not have a reason to worry," announced the president of the largest construction company on the WSE, Budimex's, Marek Michałowski. (Puls Biznesu, pp. 1, 4) A.K.