Polsat to create a holding

2005-07-22

Puls Biznesu reports that Polsat, the largest commercial television company in Poland, is planning to create a holding which will include the Telewizja Polsat television station, the PTE Polsat open pension fund, Invest-Bank, Telewizja Plus, a Catholic television station, and, possibly, Polskie Media (PM), the owner of the TV4 television station. The goal of this strategy is that of making the Polsat group more transparent for investors before Polsat’s IPO, which is scheduled for next year. This means that Polsat has learned a lesson from its major rival, ITI Holdings, the owner of the TVN television station, whose exchange debut was a failure because investors were not able to clearly identify the capital connections within the group.
Polsat had planned to acquire PM after the IPO from which the cash for the deal was to have been obtained, but, according to Zygmunt Solorz-Zak, Polsat’s owner, quoted by the daily, this offer was presented to him by Andrzej Kuchar, who has a controlling share in PM (75%) via the Trans Media Group. In addition, Mr. Solorz-Zak stated that Mr. Kuchar is urging prompt completion of the deal. TV4 has been cooperating for a long time with Polsat, broadcasting its content.
At the moment, Polsat is not planning to augment its stake in Telewizja Plus; at the end of June Ster bought a 40% stake in the station from the Franciscan convent.
In the public offer Polsat is planning to sell between 20% and 30% of its share, valued at between $200 and 300m.

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