TP S A turning into behemoth with zl.2.2 billion profit

Telecommunications giant Telekomunikacja Polska S.A. (TP S A) is becoming a behemoth, with net profit in the fourth quarter of 2000 at zl.878 million. The company's financing costs for the same period reached zl.49 million, down from zl.357 million in the last quarter of 1999. TP S A also doubled its operating profit in the final quarter of last year. It declared non-consolidated profit for 2000 of zl.2.2 billion, double the amount obtained in 1999. The boost in profits results mainly from the strength of the Polish zloty, but also from tight control of operating costs. The spectacular fall in TP S A's expenses may be due to the policy of France Telecom, its strategic investor, which may have launched a strict cost control strategy. According to Radoslaw Solan, an analyst for PKO BP Bank Brokerage House (BDM), the TP S A strategy may be successful and it will be difficult for the competition to beat it. Yet Wlodzimiez Giller, an Erste Securities Polska analyst, points out that although the results are good, "one should keep in mind that the basis for comparison, i.e. the fourth quarter of 1999, was exceptionally weak.■ (Prawo i Gospodarka, p. 12).M. S.-C.