Sphinx hungry for bourse debut

Sfinks Polska (owner of the Sphinx restaurant chain) submitted its issue prospectus to the Polish Securities and Exchange Commission (KPWiG) at the end of March, and the company is hoping to debut on the bourse within the next two months.

"Without the funds from the bourse, we were able to open 15 Sphinx restaurants annually. We believe that raising our capital will enable us to open 15-20 Sphinx restaurants and four to six Chłopskie Jadło outlets per year," Michał Seider, director for finance of Sfinks Polska, told Puls Biznesu.

Sfinks Polska, which recently acquired seven Chłopskie Jadło restaurants to go along with its 79 Sphinx eateries, plans to make almost zł.11.8 million in net profit this year, 60 percent more than in 2005, with sales income of zł.164.8 million.

By December, 14 new Sphinx restaurants are to be opened, as well as four to six Chłopskie Jadło restaurants. The cost of the investment is estimated at zł.16-17 million, 75 percent of which will be covered by bank loans.

Forty-seven percent of Sfinks' shares are held by company CEO Tomasz Morawski, 32 percent belongs to Enterprise Investors and the remaining 21 percent to other investment funds, including AIG, Generali and Credit Suisse.

According to Morawski it is likely that Enterprise Investors will sell its shares in Sfinks during the IPO.

In Q1 2006 Sfinks posted a net profit of  zł.1.9 million.