TPSA shares take heavy losses on Warsaw Exchange

Shares of the dominant national phone operator, TPSA, fell yesterday by 4.2% to zl. 13.6, pushing the key WIG 20 index down 1.2%. Earlier this year the Treasury Ministry transferred around 65 million shares, or 4.7% of TPSA's total share capital, to two state-owned banks, Bank Gospodarki Zywnosciowej (BGZ) and Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (BGK), as well as to the Industrial Development Agency (ARP). "A foreign brokerage is said to have won a mandate to find a buyer for all the shares belonging to these organizations," said Artur Zareba, a broker at CA IB Securities in Warsaw. The dominant traders of the shares were foreign investors who received a chance to obtain TPSA shares at lower rates from the three companies. This event has put a shadow on yesterday's very successful debut of the first tranche of TPSA bonds on the CeTO over-the-counter market. The telecom offered 600 bonds at a nominal value of zl. 500,000 each. During yesterday's session 265 bonds were sold, with the value of transactions totalling zl. 131.3 million. (Reuters; Puls Biznesu, p. 12; Prawo i Gospodarka, p. 1) A.K.