Ster-Projekt's shocking Q3 results add to its woes

Its sales plunged to zł.38 million - the worst result in three years. Its Q3 net loss was over zł.10 million, while since the beginning of the year the company has lost zł.20.3 million. Back in September Piotr Smólski, Ster-Projekt's president, warned that the concern's Q3 and Q4 results may be poor, but the size of loss must have surprised him as well as investors. The integrator's share standing fell on Thursday by 7.8% to zł.5.9. The company's problems started in 2003 when it had to wait almost a year to sign a deal with TP SA to begin the second stage of building its data processing center. What is more, Ster-Projekt has not won any significant new clients and the situation did not improve even after it took over DRQ, whose financial situation was good. Ster-Projekt's new management, appointed in September, devised a restructuring program encompassing employment reductions and flattening its organizational structure. Smólski hopes that the new program will help the company post a zł.10 million profit in 2005. (Parkiet, p. 5) D.W.