ZA Pulawy offering cancelled due to lack of interest

The initial public offering of chemical company ZA Pulawy was cancelled on Saturday after individual investors failed to show sufficient interest. As the first bourse flotation of a state-owned company this year, the ZA Pulawy sale was expected to earn the State Treasury up to zl.178.6 million. The decision to cancel the offering of 4.75 millions shares, or almost 35% of the firm's stock capital, is expected to come as a blow to the cash-strapped Treasury. According to the Rzeczpospolita daily, demand among individual investors for the shares was no more than 500,000. Analysts say the main problem was the share price being set too high. The Treasury was asking for between zl.35 and zl.40, while analysts estimate that a price range of zl.20 to zl.25 per share would have been more appropriate. ZA Pulawy is a major producer of nitrogen fertilizers, controlling half of the domestic market. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B1; Reuters) P.W.