WBJ #41 2012

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VOLUME 18, NUMBER 41 • OCTOBER 15-21, 2012 . z∏.12.50 (VAT 8% included) . ISSN 1233 7889 INDEX-RUCH-332-127 Since 1994 . Poland’s only business weekly in English WWW.WBJ.PL Is the cloud safe? Polish firms are using cloud computing in ever greater numbers, but is their most sensitive data secure? 12-13 ¸UKASZ MAZUREK/ SHUTTERSTOCK/WBJ 10 INVESTING IN POLAND: WBJ launches a series of profiles of firms that have made innovative, sustainable investments around the country 23 Want an army of vaguely insectoid robots? Tech Eye has you covered Extensive coverage of all of the Poland-related news from last week’s Expo Real real estate event in Munich 16-18 COURTESY OF EXPO REAL LOKALE IMMOBILIA REAL ESTATE News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-4 Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-6 Finance & Economics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Interview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-9 Investing in Poland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Opinion & Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Cover Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-13 Media Patronage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Lokale Immobilia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-18 Markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 The List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Lifestyle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Last Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 In this issue Politics: Political PR specialist Piotr Tymochowicz talks about the current state of Polish politics, and calls Jaros∏aw Kaczyƒski the right’s “cleaning lady” 15 Tusk center stage The PM promised billions in new investment in a highly anticipated policy speech last week 3 Budget blues Talk of two separate EU budgets has Poland worried it could lose out on much-needed funding 4

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Warsaw Business Journal, vol. 18, #41, October 15-21

Transcript of WBJ #41 2012

Page 1: WBJ #41 2012

VOLUME 18, NUMBER 41 • OCTOBER 15-21, 2012 . z∏.12.50 (VAT 8% included) . ISSN 1233 7889 INDEX-RUCH-332-127 Since 1994 . Poland’s only business weekly in English

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but is their most sensitive data secure? 12-13

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INVESTING IN POLAND: WBJ launches a seriesof profiles of firms that have made innovative,sustainable investments around the country

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Want an army of vaguelyinsectoid robots?

Tech Eye has you covered

Extensive coverage of all

of the Poland-related

news from last week’s

Expo Real real estate

event in Munich 16-18

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News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2-4

Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5-6

Finance & Economics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Interview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8-9

Investing in Poland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Opinion & Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Cover Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12-13

Media Patronage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

Politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

Lokale Immobilia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16-18

Markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

The List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

Lifestyle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

Last Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

In this issue

Politics:Political PR specialist

Piotr Tymochowicz talks

about the current state

of Polish politics, and

calls Jaros∏aw

Kaczyƒski the right’s

“cleaning lady” 15

TTuusskk cceenntteerr ssttaaggeeThe PM promised billions in new investment in

a highly anticipated policy speech last week 3

BBuuddggeett bblluueessTalk of two separate EU budgets has Poland

worried it could lose out on much-needed funding 4

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OCTOBER 15-21, 2012NNEEWWSS2 www.wbj.pl

Two polls,

two victorsIn the most recent

CBOS poll, the ruling

Civic Platform (PO)

party, with 28%

support, leads by four

percentage points over

the opposition Law

and Justice (PiS)

party. For the past two

months polling

institute CBOS has

noted a decline in

support for the ruling

party. According to a

survey by

MillwardBrown

SMG/KRC, it is actually

PiS, with 30% support,

that leads over PO.

WSE giants

deliver big

payoutsSome 140 firms listed

on the Warsaw Stock

Exchange have shared

their profits with

shareholders so far in

2012, paying out more

than z∏.22 billion in

dividends, reported

Rzeczpospolita.

The majority of that

sum went to

respective majority

stakeholders of large

listed companies, but

even small market

investors saw gains. In

fact, the average rate

of return across the

WSE is 4.6%, the

highest in the history

of the bourse.

Millionaire

population to

grow 105%The next five years are

expected to see the

number of Polish

millionaires grow by

105% to 78,000,

according to the third

edition of the Global

Wealth Report,

prepared by Credit

Suisse. The Poland

scenario looks to be

part of a broader

global trend. Come

2017, the number of

millionaires around

the world is expected

to have jumped 62%.

Workers’ ris-

ing anxiety

Nearly one in three

Poles expects to lose

their job within the

next six months,

according to a survey

carried out by

Randstad, reported

Rzeczpospolita. What’s

more, Poles’

confidence in being

able to quickly find

another job is also

falling. ●

Allianz Real

Estate Germany ........16

Amazon ......................12

AMC – Andrzej M.

Cho∏dzyƒski................18

Aon eSolutions ..........12

Asseco Poland ..........12

Bank Gospodarstwa

Krajowego ....................3

Bank Millennium ........6

BBI

Development NFI ......17

BP ................................5

Capital Park ..............16

CBRE ..........................16

Centrum Bankowo

Finansowe

Nowy Âwiat ................18

Cisco ..........................12

Citi Handlowy ..............3

Citibank ........................3

Credit Suisse................2

CSC ............................12

Dom Maklerski IDM ....6

Echo Investment ........16

Ericsson ....................14

Eurometal ....................5

F-Secure ....................14

GDDKiA ........................6

Globe Trade Centre....16

Hyla ............................23

IBM ............................12

Ipopema Securities......5

Itella ..........................10

IVG Immobilien ..........16

Jones Lang LaSalle ..18

Lindner ........................6

Lotos ............................5

Microsoft ....................14

MTU Polska................10

Neste ............................5

Netia ..........................14

Orlen ............................5

Peter Nielsen &

Partners ......................6

PKO Bank Polski..........6

Polimex-Mostostal ......5

“Polish Airports”

State Enterprise ........17

Polnord ......................16

Prokom Investments 12

PRS ..............................6

PZU ............................13

Randstad ......................2

Royal Dutch Shell ........5

S+B Gruppe................17

Skanska

Property Poland ........17

SRB Civil Engineering 6

Standard & Poor ..........6

Tognum Group ..........10

Verizon Business ......12

VIS

Construction Group ....5

Wow Stuff ..................23

WSE ....................2, 6, 18

ZE PAK ........................6

Thanks to conservative MPsfrom the ruling Civic Platformparty, parliament last weekrejected a bill to liberalizePoland’s laws on abortion whileat the same time voting to con-tinue work on a proposed billthat would further tighten thecountry’s already strict laws onthe procedure.

The liberal proposal was ini-tiated by the anti-clericalPalikot’s Movement and aimedto grant women the power toterminate pregnancies in thefirst trimester, without anyrestrictions. The proposal wasrejected overwhelmingly: some

365 MPs in the 460-memberlower house of parliament, theSejm, voted against it.

Parliament will now insteadmove ahead with a bill broughtforward by the conservativeSolidarity Poland party, whichwould further restrict abortionlaws in Poland, already amongthe most stringent in Europe.

Solidarity Poland’s proposalwould ban abortions of dam-aged fetuses. The bill is sup-ported by the largest oppositionparty in parliament, the conser-vative Law and Justice. FortyMPs from Civic Platform,which has touted itself as a

moderate party, also voted infavor of this proposal.

Poland’s current laws allowfor abortion in the event ofrape, if the mother’s health is atgrave risk, or if there is a highprobability that the fetus isdamaged or deformed.

In response to the vote,President Bronis∏aw Komo-rowski, who was elected as acandidate from Civic Platform,said the development was “dis-turbing.”

“I have always believed thatone cannot violate a fragile butdifficult compromise that nev-ertheless serves Poland. …Civic Platform must defend thiscompromise at all costs,” saidMr Komorowski, referring tothe existing laws on the matter.

Mr Komorowski warnedthat if this compromise werebroken, an “ideological war”could emerge. In an effort toemphasize the message, thepresident went as far as toinvoke the late First LadyMaria Kaczyƒska – the wife ofthe late President LechKaczyƒski, a political foe of MrKomorowski – saying MsKaczyƒska had “categoricallysupported the compromise.”

This was likely a message tothe more conservative sectionof Polish society. But if the pres-ident opposes the changes, thenhe will likely veto them once thebill lands on his desk.

RReemmii AAddeekkooyyaa

7th will be Poland’s place in the EU in terms of the fastest-

growing economies next year, according to the IMF.

78,000 is the number of Polish millionaires expected by 2017,a five-year jump of 105% according to the latest Global

Wealth Report by Credit Suisse.

€16 billionis the value of Polish food exports forecast for 2012,

according to the Agriculture Ministry.

52,578 is the number of automobiles that rolled out of Polish

factories in September. That’s a drop of 25% on thesame period last year.

“A man is not always in control of his facialexpressions”

Prime Minister Donald Tusk during last Friday's parliamentary debate, respond-ing to an opposition MP's comment that he was laughing and making jokes whileMPs were asking questions about the policy speech he had made earlier that day.

Quote of the Week

The EU wins the Nobel Peace PrizeThe EU has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prizefor fostering peace on a continent that was oncetorn apart by war. Was the recognition deserved?Log on to WBJ.pl to read Polish experts’ opinionson the matter.

On WBJ.pl

Numbers in the News

Company index

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Poland’s abortion debateIN THE SPOTLIGHT

Figures in focusPart-timersPart-time employment as a share of total employment (%),selected EU27 countries in 2011

Source: Eurostat**Highest in EU27 *Lowest in EU27

16 YOUNG ART AUCTIONEvent: This auction of a diverse set of works

includes both well-known young artists anddebutantes who have graduated from fineart academies in recent years. Ninety-eightselected works by young painters will beauctioned. The starting price of each isz∏.500.

Location: ul. Marsza∏kowska 34-50, WarsawWeb: desa.pl

18 175TH FINE ART AUCTIONEvent: Over 100 items made before 1945 will be

auctioned off, including pictures, sculpturesand handicrafts. The offer includes works byRafa∏ Malczewski, Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski,Jan Che∏moƒski and many other Polish mas-ters.

Location: ul. Marsza∏kowska 34-50, WarsawWeb: desa.pl

24-28 FASHIONPHILOSOPHY Event: FashionPhilosophy Fashion Week Poland is

the biggest fashion event in the region, sayorganizers. This event will present

Spring/Summer 2013 trends.Location: ¸ódêWeb: fashionweek.pl

25 OFFICE BUILDINGS IN POLANDEvent: This 5th edition of the conference, organized

by Nowy Adres, will feature over 30 expertspeakers, as well as a number of lecturesand panel discussions. It promises to be agreat meeting opportunity for senior man-agement of companies in the Polish officemarket.

Location: Warsaw Marriott HotelWeb: konferencje.nowyadres.pl/office-buildings-in-

poland.php

25 5TH JEWELRY AUCTIONEvent: Ninety rare items will be auctioned from a

wide selection of old jewelry from the artdeco and Biedermeier periods, among oth-ers. The offer includes diamond-encrustedbracelets and s unique ring called “the poi-soner.”

Location: ul. Marsza∏kowska 34-50, WarsawWeb: desa.pl

October

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Politics

PPMM wwiinnss ccoonnffiiddeennccee vvootteeaammiiddsstt sslluummpp iinn ssuuppppoorrtt

Prime Minister Donald Tuskwon a vote of confidence inparliament last Friday afterannouncing a public invest-ment program estimated atroughly z∏.200 billion, as wellas policies for combatingPoland’s demographic prob-lems.

The speech followed aspate of recent polls showingMr Tusk’s Civic Platform(PO) party trailing opposi-tion Law and Justice (PiS) byanything from 2 to 6 percent-age points. The vote of confi-dence was initiated by theprime minister himself.

In a much-awaited policyspeech, Prime Minister Tusktold parliament that one ofthe key responsibilities of hisgovernment will be to keepPoland’s economy growingand keep Poles in work “atall costs.”

Investments He announced the creationof a special investment vehi-cle called “Polish Invest-ments,” which will have z∏.40billion in funds to be man-aged by the state-ownedBank Gospodarstwa Kra-jowego (BGK).

Mr Tusk said the programwill be financed without“increasing public debt” butby exploiting the “frozenassets of state-owned firms.”

BGK will receive owner-ship of shares in state-con-trolled firms and subse-quently make loans totalingsome z∏.40 billion for invest-ments in Poland, accordingto Finance Minister JacekRostowski. This operationwill be carried out betweennow and 2015.

The PM also said his gov-ernment would announce

tenders valued at z∏.73 bil-lion during the years 2013 to2015 in order to continuerecent investments in high-ways and modernize thecountry’s antiquated railwaysystem.

Meanwhile, by 2020, z∏.60billion will have been spenton energy-sector invest-ments, such as the buildingof gas terminals. The govern-ment also expects z∏.55 bil-lion to be spent on shale gasinvestments, although z∏.5billion will come from Polishfirms while the rest will befrom foreign firms. Also,z∏.10 billion will be spent onmodernizing the Polish armyin 2013 and 2014. In addi-tion, z∏.1 billion will be spenton modernizing the Polishpolice force.

DemographicsPoland has a demographicproblem, with the averagefertility rate at 1.3 childrenper woman. In addition,Poland’s population isexpected to shrink by 1 per-

cent in the next decade, andis aging.

If Poles don’t start to havemore children, there will be

too few people to work forthose on pensions.

Mr Tusk said his govern-ment will embark on a “revo-lution” in social policiesaimed at solving this prob-lem.

An announcement thatwill surely get Poles’ atten-tion is that the maximummaternity leave will now beextended from 6 months to12 months.

There will be two optionsavailable to mothers. If amother chooses the six-month option, then she willreceive 100 percent of hersalary for the whole period.If she picks the one-yearoffer, then she will receive 80percent of her salary for thewhole period.

There will also be somez∏.370 million set aside forbuilding preschools andkindergartens.

Innovation and othersA lot has been made of thefact that Poland needs totransform into a knowledge-based economy in order tocontinue developing. Thestate currently spends just0.6 percent of GDP onR&D, much less than mostother EU countries. The PMaddressed this, saying “we

will invest z∏.10 billion in thenext three years on laborato-ries and building fast infor-mation networks in order tomake Poland more innova-tive.”

Responding to the oppo-sition’s oft-repeated criti-cism that he has failed toprovide a “vision” forPoland’s future, Mr Tusksaid, “I am not and will notbe a specialist on big roman-tic visions. My vision is madeup of small, everydaydreams.” He said he wouldtry to “win back the trust andconfidence of Poles,” likelyreferring to his party’s weak-ening popularity.

President Bronis∏aw Ko-morowski, a political ally ofthe prime minister, said thespeech was very “technocrat-ic” but that this was a “goodthing.”

President Komorowskispoke with approval aboutthe PM’s announcementsregarding policies for youngparents.

Meanwhile, Mariusz B∏a-szczak, Law and Justice’sparliamentary caucus leader,lambasted Mr Tusk’s speech,saying it lacked specifics.

“Donald Tusk has nocredibility,” he said.

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Mr Tusk was under pressure to deliver a strong performance

There were no shortage of opinionsabout the Prime Minister’s policyspeech, and business circles had plentyto chew on. Piotr Kalisz, chief econo-mist for Citi Handlowy, Citibank’s Pol-ish branch, sent his statements to clientsand journalists. Here are some of hismain takeaways from the speech:

•Not many details but trying to bringsome optimism. [Friday] morningPrime Minister Tusk delivered a long-awaited speech, presenting the gov-ernment’s actions in response to theeconomic slowdown. A substantialpart of the announcedmeasures/actions is not new as it wasalready included in previous govern-ment plans. Therefore, we treat thespeech as an attempt to bring someoptimism to the general public, ratherthan an announcement of new meas-ures.

•Investment matters. In our view thestrong message from the speech is thatthe government will try to keep invest-ment spending at a high level. Thisappears to be a rational strategy, giventhat fiscal multipliers of public invest-ment spending are usually high.

•What was proposed? The most inter-esting proposal is a plan to increase theequity of the state-owned bank BGK[Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego] byz∏.10 billion in order to boost lending.The capital injection will come througha transfer of shares of some state-owned companies to BGK and there-fore it should be neutral for the budgetbut is likely to generate around z∏.40billion in lending for investment proj-ects.

•The PM mentioned large investmentprojects to be realized in the comingyears. This includes investment in theenergy sector (z∏.60 billion until 2020),shale gas exploration (z∏.50 billionuntil 2016), railways and roads (z∏.30billion and z∏.43 billion respectively).According to our estimates this wouldbe equivalent to 2.4 percent of GDPannually in the coming years.Although the size of the investmentplans appears large, these are not newmeasures as they have been in thepipeline for some time and thereforethey should not change our growthforecasts. Furthermore, the speech

lacked details regarding the way theseprojects are to be financed and webelieve there is a risk that actualspending will be slower and possiblysmaller than the government is plan-ning.

•Maternity leave. The governmentannounced a shift towards pro-familymeasures. This includes the lengthen-ing of maternity leave to one year (vs.20 weeks now) as well as the wideravailability of kindergartens. The gov-ernment also wants to increase socialcontributions paid by high earners on“flexible” job contracts but will notincrease contributions by personswith low incomes.

•No reason to change forecasts. Thespeech didn’t include many newdetails. It seems the government issticking to its previous policy withonly some tweaks, mostly regardingits pro-family policy and increasedlending by the state-owned bank.More details will be presented ... bythe finance minister but for now wesee no reason to change our macro ormarket forecasts. ●

The prime minister’s speech: an economist’s reaction

With recent polls showing the ruling CivicPlatform behind opposition Law and Justice,Donald Tusk announces a z∏.200 billioninvestment program, among several otherpolicies

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European politics

EEuurroo zzoonnee bbuuddggeett pprrooppoossaalllleeaavveess PPoollaanndd ffeeaarrffuull ooff wwaanniinngg iinnfflluueenncceeA proposal for separatebudgets for the eurozone and the wider EUis gaining traction

Plans are afoot to create abudget for the euro zone thatwould be distinct from the long-term budget of the wider Euro-pean Union, raising fearsamong Polish politicians thatPoland could receive less EUfunding and become isolatedpolitically.

Draft conclusions of an EUsummit due to take place thisweek say that “for the euroarea, the objective is to movetowards an integrated budget-ary framework.” Mechanismsrelated to this “would be specif-ic to the euro area,” the draftreads.

The creation of a separatecurrency-area budget is seen asa way of transferring money tothe bloc’s troubled economies,but there are worries that itcould reduce funds for thewider budget and therefore forPoland. Over the last few yearsPoland has been the biggestbeneficiary of EU structuralfunds.

“We hope it doesn’tadversely affect negotiations forthe wider 2014-2020 budget –but it could lead to that budgetbeing cut to a smaller size thanthe one currently in force,”Rafa∏ Trzaskowski, a PolishMEP, told WBJ.

There are also worries that aseparate budget will see the EUsplit more clearly into two polit-ical entities, potentially leavingin the cold those who are not inthe euro zone – includingPoland.

Polish fears“This is an idea which hasemerged at an inconvenienttime,” EU Budget Commis-sioner Janusz Lewandowski,himself a Pole, told daily Rzecz-pospolita.

“We are afraid the proposedbudget could be a sign that theunion is dividing,” said Mr Trza-skowski. “We want to safeguardthe unity of Europe’s institu-tions.”

Germany and France arethe principle backers of sepa-rate budgets, meaning the planhas the support of the two mostpolitically powerful members of

the EU.UK Prime Minister David

Cameron has also put his coun-try’s weight behind the initia-tive, saying in an interview withthe BBC that “there will come atime I believe where you’regoing to need to have two Euro-pean budgets – one for the sin-gle currency, because they’regoing to have to support eachother much more, and perhapsa wider budget for everybodyelse.”

Lack of clarityNevertheless, details of the pro-posal for a separate euro zonebudget are scant.

“There is a big lack of clarityabout what the proposed euro-area budget might look like,”said Janis A. Emmanouilidis, asenior policy analyst at theEuropean Policy Centre, athink tank.

“We don’t know what itsfunction will be, how it will befunded and how it would bescrutinized … there are lots ofunanswered questions,” headded.

It is also not known whetherfunds from the budget would be

available only to countries thatalready have the euro, orwhether they would also beavailable to countries likePoland that are obliged bytreaty to adopt the single cur-rency.

“If it addresses a euro-zonespecific issue it might be a nat-ural extension of euro zonegovernance,” said FabianZuleeg, chief economist at theEuropean Policy Centre. “Butif it affects wider policy areas… it could well lead to a fur-

ther cementation of the sepa-ration between ins and outs,”

And while Poland doesplan to join the euro zone atsome point, delay could cost itdearly.

“In general terms, themore integration is takingplace within the euro zone,the more politically costly it isto stay outside,” said MrZuleeg.

MEP Rafa∏ Trzaskowskisaid that for its part, Polandjust wants to stick to the EU’s

timetable. “Our priority is to have the

2014-2020 budget negotiated.We need this budget to give usgrowth and in this we are notacting in a selfish interest,because the budget is indis-pensable for Europeangrowth,” he said.

“We’re trying to stick tothe calendar, then we can talkabout other means to saveEurope from the crisis,” headded.

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British PM David Cameron has spoken out in favor of two separate European budgets

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The state is looking totake control of thetroubled builder toensure it stays afloat,and in a position toprovide its expertisefor energy projects

The Polish state has thrown alifeline to debt-laden Polishconstruction firm Polimex-Mostostal by offering to buy acontrolling stake in the belea-guered builder.

The state-owned IndustrialDevelopment Agency (ARP)has agreed to purchase newshares comprising a stake ofup to 33 percent, for a maxi-mum of z∏.250 million. A stakesized around 33 percent wouldgive the ARP control of thecompany.

The Agency will pay up toz∏.0.50 per share for Polimex.Moreover, a proposal has alsobeen made that will allow thecompany’s bondholders toconvert the debt they hold intoshares in the company.Polimex shareholders are dueto vote on the proposals thisweek.

“We are thinking abouttaking a controlling stake inPolimex,” Miko∏aj Budza-

nowski, Poland’s treasury min-ister, told Rzeczpospolita. “Thething is to be able to overseethe restructuring process andto be able to join in discussionswith banks. That is why we aresending our representative tothe board. Today, the mostimportant is for the companyto straighten out, sell off non-essential holdings and signnew energy contracts.”

The state is keen to keepPolimex afloat because thecompany has the engineeringexpertise needed to undertakea z∏.6.3 billion scheme toexpand the Kozienice powerplant and another z∏.9.3 billionpower plant project in Opole.

Russian offerHowever, the waters have

been muddied somewhat bythe Russian VIS ConstructionGroup, which itself has placedan offer to purchase a 33 per-cent stake in Polimex, Parkietwrote, citing unnamedsources.

The price per share pro-posed by the Russian entity isreportedly higher than thatdue to be offered by the ARP.

According to Parkiet’ssources, however, funds withshares in Polimex won’t allowthe Russian company to takecontrol of the Polish builder.

Government lendsa handIn recent weeks the govern-ment has helped negotiate astandstill agreement concern-ing z∏.2.5 billion owed by

Polimex to banks and othercreditors, buying time for thefirm to restructure its debt.Polimex has run up a largepile of debt due to its involve-ment in the Euro 2012 infra-structure building boom.

Eurometal, a subcontrac-tor of Polimex, looked to havethrown a spanner in the workslast week when it demandedthe payment of z∏.600,000 inunpaid fees and filed arequest for Polimex to bedeclared bankrupt. Euromet-al has been forced to lay offhalf of its staff and reducesalaries across the board dueto financial problems relatedto the fact that it hasn’t beenpaid.

Nevertheless, should ARPtake control of the company,the difficulties posed byEurometal are likely to bedealt with.

“Eurometal is only one ofmany contractors and suppli-ers to Polimex,” said TomaszDuda, an analyst at IpopemaSecurities. “Given that thegovernment is stepping in, thefirm’s liquidity situation hasbeen shored up a bit – it willhelp them pay off Euromet-al,” he added.

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Polimex overextended itself when taking part in the

Euro 2012 infrastructure boom

Lotos and Orlen eyeNeste’s Polish gasstation networkPoland’s second-largest oilrefiner Lotos has begun talksconcerning the purchase of gasstations in Poland owned byFinnish firm Neste Oil.

“The sale process haslaunched. The subject is beinganalyzed by us,” MariuszMachajewski, vice president ofthe board at Lotos, told Parkiet.

“We are involved in theprocess,” a Lotos spokespersonconfirmed to WBJ.

Mr Machajewski did notspecify whether the Gdaƒsk-based group planned to buy thewhole chain or only selectedlocations. Neste owns 106 gasstations in Poland.

Rival PKN Orlen is alsoeying Neste’s Polish gas sta-

tions, having announced aninterest in those assets back inJuly. Neste Oil could not bereached for comment.

The acquisition of Nestewould bring Lotos closer to a 10percent share of the domesticretail gas-station market, andwould give the company secondplace in terms of number of gasstations owned in Poland. Itcurrently has the fourth-largestchain, behind Royal DutchShell and BP, with Orlen far outahead in first place, accordingto Polish Organisation of OilIndustry and Trade data.

Analysts estimate that theacquisition of Neste’s entiregas-station chain would cost upto z∏.200 million. GGPP

0

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

StatoilLotosShellBPPKN Orlen

Scrapping for secondLargest gas station network operators in Poland, by number of

stations owned (data from the end of June 2012)

Source: Polish Organisation of Oil Industry and Trade (POPiHN)

Page 6: WBJ #41 2012

OCTOBER 15-21, 2012BBUUSSIINNEESSSS6 www.wbj.pl

Western banks

withholding

money

Standard & Poor’s said

last week that Western

banks are withholding

“significant” funds from

eastern Europe,

Bloomberg reported. The

ratings agency added that

they are doing so due to

worries about the troubled

euro zone. As a result,

countries such as Hungary

and Poland have seen

their economic growth

prospects reduced, the

agency said. “It’s clearly a

concern that parent banks

are visibly withdrawing

their financing,” said

Frank Gill, a sovereign

rating analyst.

PKO likely to

issue euro

bonds in 2013PKO Bank Polski plans to

issue euro bonds worth

hundreds of millions of

euros, Reuters reported.

The issue was more

likely to take place in

2013 than this year, its

deputy chief executive

said. “This year such an

issue is not very likely.

More likely we will make

use of it next year,”

Jakub Papierski told

Reuters. He added that

the bank would only go to

market this year if

conditions were very

favorable. “We are

talking hundreds of

millions of euros,” he

emphasized. ●

Contact: Miros∏aw Stefanik

[email protected]

Legal News

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PETER NIELSEN & PARTNERS LAW OFFICE

Acceleration of penaltyproceduresOn October 9, the government adopted adraft amendment to the penalty proce-dure code. The amendments stipulate theacceleration and improvement of penaltyprocedures by eliminating and shorteningsome court procedures, limiting the possi-bility of executive detention and limitingthe number of documents sent to courts.Moreover, it will be possible to discontin-ue a criminal procedure if the offender rec-onciles with the injured party and repairsthe damage caused. Such a procedurewill be possible in the case of offensespunishable by deprivation of liberty of upto five years. The adopted amendmentswill be forwarded to parliament for discus-sion.

Reducing administrative burdensin the economyOn October 9, the government adoptedguidelines to a draft amendment to theact on reduction of certain administra-

tive burdens in the economy. In accor-dance with the guidelines, the provi-sions of the act are to improve condi-tions for conducting economic activity,remove or limit some of the administra-tive barriers and simplify legal provi-sions relating to business activity inPoland.

One of the proposed changes isdesigned to improve the liquidity ofsome entrepreneurs by abolishing theobligation for so-called “small taxpay-ers” (whose sales value including taxwas not higher than €1.2 million in theprevious tax year) of paying VAT, if sucha taxpayer has not received payment forthe delivered goods or rendered servic-es and its contracting party is an activeVAT payer (at present there is a legaltime limit of 90 days, which is to beabolished by the amendment).

If the small taxpayer’s contractingparty is an entity which is not an activeVAT taxpayer, the time limit will beextended by up to 180 days. ●

PKO BP eyes takeover of local banksPoland’s largest lender, PKOBank Polski, wants to grow itsbusiness by making acquisi-tions in Poland, and thenpotentially in the wider region.

Zbigniew Jagie∏∏o, thebank’s CEO, told reportersthat market conditions favorthe takeover of local banks.His statement was a rare onefor an official of the state-con-trolled bank, which is knownfor its conservative tendencies.

“The next six quarters willbe much weaker in terms ofGDP growth in Poland. Thismeans smaller banks will havedifficulties making adequatereturns,” said Mr Jagie∏∏o.

“We want to use the com-

ing time to buy a city bank –that is, one whose domain islarge cities – and strengthen[our] position as number onein Poland,” he added.

Micha∏ Sobolewski, an ana-lyst at Dom Maklerski IDM,said PKO BP is consideringtakeovers because they are theonly way for it to scale up.

“Organic growth can onlyhelp it expand so far,” he said.

According to Mr Jagie∏∏o,PKO BP would be interestedin purchasing Bank Millenni-um if its Portuguese ownerBCP once again decided toput it up for sale. BCP askedfor bids for Millennium latelast year, but in the end decid-

ed not to sell.PKO BP has been a rich

source of dividends for thenational budget in recentyears, but this supply line

could come under threat ifdecides to splurge on a largelocal lender.

“The state would be moreinterested in getting dividends

from PKO BP for the budget.… Takeovers could lower divi-dend payouts,” said MrSobolewski.

GGaarreetthh PPrriiccee

GDDKiA sued for z∏.1.2 billion by Irish builderIrish construction firm SRBCivil Engineering is suingPoland’s state road operatorGDDKiA for some z∏.1.2 bil-lion. SRB claims that it wasforced to abandon a contractto build the highway betweenToruƒ, in the north of Poland,and Stryków in central Poland,

due to failures by roads opera-tor GDDKiA.

But GDDKiA says SRBwas at fault and that it was theroads operator who had towithdraw from the contract,not the other way around.

GDDKiA issued a state-ment saying that because it

feared SRB would fail to payits subcontractors, GDDKiAhalted paying SRB for thework on the A1 highway.The European Commissionis currently looking into thedispute.

The case surfaces on theheels of Poland’s huge infra-

structure program, whichwas supposed to transformPoland’s dilapidated roadsystem ahead of the 2012European soccer champi-onships.

But the project leftbehind a trail of contractualdisagreements and construc-

tion firms saying they hadlost money. Several ofPoland’s largest constructionfirms are struggling as aresult of their participationin major infrastructure proj-ects in the run-up to thetournament (see story, p. 5).

IIzzaabbeellaa DDeeppcczzyykk

ZE PAK gets low valuation ahead of public offerPoland’s Treasury Ministryhas valued utility ZE PAK atz∏.1.72 billion ahead of itsplanned debut on the WarsawStock Exchange. The pricetag is at the low end of whatbookmakers had estimated inSeptember.

The state plans to list its50 percent stake in ZE PAK

on the WSE on or nearNovember 30. The companyis the fifth-largest producerof electricity in Poland.

Bookmakers running theIPO had valued ZE PAK atz∏.1.5-3.7 billion, Reutersreported, but concerns aboutthe slowing economy andissues over the age of ZE

PAK’s power plants and thevolume of CO2 they emithave forced the state to putthe valuation toward the bot-tom of that range.

The Treasury, which hasraised about z∏.8 billion fromprivatizations this year, hopesto hit a target of z∏.10 billionby year-end. The successful

sale of the 50 percent stake atthe valuation price would netthe state some z∏.858 million.

ZE PAK’s prospectus says75-85 percent of all theshares will be offered tofinancial institutions, withthe rest being made availableto retail investors. The maxi-mum price for individual

investors has been set at z∏.33a share.

In the first half of thisyear, the company made anet profit of z∏.214 millioncompared to z∏.249 million ayear earlier, as the slowingeconomy weighed on powerconsumption.

GGaarreetthh PPrriiccee

Coffins

LLiinnddnneerr uusseess sseexx ttoo sseellll ccooffffiinnssThe coffin maker haslaunched a raunchycalendar for 2013

Lindner, one of Poland’slargest coffin makers, has pro-duced a calendar for 2013which portrays naked andscantily clad models posingnext to and on top of the com-pany’s products.

Lindner’s head salespersonTomasz Kilarski said the calen-dar is part of a campaign topromote the company abroad.

“Coffin producers in Polandnormally find it hard to sellbeyond their immediate region[within Poland],” Mr Kilarskisaid. “We actually managed tospread out internationally, andour coffins are bought by funer-al homes in France, Germanyand other places,” he added.

Lindner functions as a B2Bbusiness, selling caskets in bulkmainly to funeral homes, whichlater sell the coffins to clients.Mr Kilarski said funeral homeowners are usually very happywhen they receive Lindner’s

calendar.Andrzej Multanowski,

owner of PRS, a PR and mar-keting agency, said thatalthough this kind of marketingis “primitive,” it achieves itspurpose of making Lindnerstand out from the crowd.

“You have to consider whotheir target client is, and that iscertainly not an individualclient, but a funeral home,” MrMultanowski said. “I think thecalendar does its job in terms of

making the company stand outto funeral home owners.”

Mr Multanowski added thatthe Polish advertising markethas recently been going back tothe past, when nudity was usedto promote products.

“The current market situa-tion is tough, there is a lot ofcompetition, so companiesreach for the easiest solution toattract attention, and we allknow sex sells,” he said.

IIzzaabbeellaa DDeeppcczzyykk

CO

UR

TE

SY O

F P

KO

BP

PKO BP is mulling a takeover of Bank Millennium, if it goes up for sale again

The Lindner calendar’s artwork for July 2013

CO

UR

TE

SY O

F L

IND

NE

R

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OCTOBER 15-21, 2012 FFIINNAANNCCEE && EECCOONNOOMMIICCSS www.wbj.pl 7

IIMMFF ffoorreeccaassttss 22..44 ppeerrcceennttggrroowwtthh ffoorr PPoollaanndd tthhiiss yyeeaarrIn its latest World EconomicOutlook report, the Interna-tional Monetary Fund predictsthat Poland’s economy willgrow by 2.4 percent in 2012,but will slow down to 2.1 per-cent in 2013. This would putPoland in seventh place whenit comes to the fastest-growingeconomies in the EU. TheIMF’s forecast for Poland isslightly higher than the gov-ernment’s expectations, whichare for 2.2 GDP growth thisyear.

Estonia and Latvia areexpected to grow the fastestnext year at 3.5 percent each,while Lithuania is forecast togrow at 3 percent.

Globally, the IMF is pes-simistic, saying, “the situationin the world’s economy hasworsened since July 2012.”

The IMF predicts theglobal economy will expandby 3.3 percent this year (asopposed to the 3.5 percent itpredicted earlier), while 2013

growth is forecast at 3.6 per-cent. It also now sees “alarm-ingly high” risks of a steeperslowdown.

“A key issue is whether theglobal economy is just hittinganother bout of turbulence inwhat was always expected tobe a slow and bumpy recoveryor whether the current slow-

down has a more lasting com-ponent,” the IMF said in thereport.

“The answer depends onwhether European and U.S.policy makers deal proactive-ly with their major short-termeconomic challenges,” it add-ed.

RReemmii AAddeekkooyyaa

0

1

2

3

4

520132012

TurkeyRomaniaPolandLatviaGermanyCzech Republic-1

Latvia leadingThe IMF’s projected GDP growth rate for selected countries,

2012 and 2013

Source: IMF

Poland couldn’t jointhe euro, even if it wanted toIn August 2012, Poland didnot satisfy any of the criteriarequired of countries thatwant to join the euro zone,according to the Ministry ofFinance.

In August, Poland did notmeet the criterion on price sta-bility, with average annualinflation rate at 4 percent (itwould have to keep it below 3percent). According to the

forecasts of the EuropeanCommission, Poland will likelynot meet this requirementuntil the end of 2013.

Poland also fell short whenit comes to interest rates. Thedifference in 12-month aver-age long-term interest rateswas 5.5 percent, 1.8 percent-age points higher thanrequired.

When Poland joined the

EU in 2004, it agreed to adoptthe common currency at somepoint, but with the euro zonecrisis continuing, the govern-ment has not yet given a targetdate. A TNS Polska poll inJune said that only 12 percentof Poles believe the countryshould join the euro zone,while as many as a third thinkPoland should never join it.

RRGG

Finance minister disappointedwith EU banking proposalsThe proposals brought for-ward by the EU bankingunion are not adequate tokeep the euro zone from dis-integrating, Polish FinanceMinister Jacek Rostowski saidat a ministers’ meeting inLuxembourg.

“We want a banking unionthat will be good for the eurozone and the entire EU,” he

told reporters, Dow JonesNewswires wrote. “But theproposals currently on thetable aren’t good even for theeuro zone, in our view.”

Mr Rostowski added thathe is “very disappointed thatthe current proposals don’teven meet the first condition,which is for that possibleunion to be something that

really holds the euro zonetogether.”

“We want the euro zone tohold together, knowing that forPoland it would be a very badthing if the euro zone fellapart. That’s why we’re con-cerned that at this stage eventhis first condition appears tonot have been met,” he added.

RRGG

CO

UR

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SY O

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PR

M

Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski

Page 8: WBJ #41 2012

OCTOBER 15-21, 20128 www.wbj.pl IINNTTEERRVVIIEEWW

European politics

FFaacciinngg rreeaalliittyy iinntthhee EEuurrooppeeaann UUnniioonn

Ewa Boniecka: There is afundamental debate going onabout the future of the EU,with EC President JoséManuel Barroso having pro-posed the idea of a Europeanfederation. Do you think thatthis idea will appeal to the 27members of the EU?Grzegorz Kostrzewa-Zorbas:It might appeal to some gov-ernments, maybe to 15-20members out of 27, but not topublic opinion in EU coun-tries. Also not to many oppo-sition forces, who are usuallymore skeptical or even open-ly anti-European Union. Idon’t say anti-European,because Europe is much big-ger than the EuropeanUnion.

So why did Mr Barroso usethe word “federalism” in con-nection with the EU, when itis anathema to many EUleaders?The idea of European feder-alism is much older and orig-inated from the concept of afederal United States ofEurope, invented not in con-tinental Europe, but in Eng-land and the US. I think thatMr Barroso proposed it in astate of desperation, in anattempt to escape from theeconomic and political crisisby going forward, by offeringa more ambitious and moreeffective vision of the EU.

But the popular mood inEurope runs contrary to thatproposal. The so-called

European idea, which wasbehind European integrationfrom the early years of theCoal and Steel Communityand which was for the lasttime expressed in the LisbonTreaty, has now evaporated.

A united Europe, strongand powerful, number one inthe world, paving the way fornew achievements of human-ity – this was the languageused in the EU for manyyears, even quite recently. ...This is gone and now a newmood prevails among the EUpopulation: national inter-ests, a pragmatic approach tothe EU, a focus on shortterm financial gains or losses,with no trace of bigger ideasand visions. So now callingfor a European federationmeans a dramatic detach-ment from reality.

But there is also a feelingthat to fight the crisis, closerintegration is needed. Do youthink this could be acceptedby members and bring a solu-tion to the present crisis?Deeper integration could bea solution, however this is atheoretical solution that hasno foundation in the mindsand hearts of the peoples ofEurope. The culture ofEurope is a collection ofnational cultures and has avery weak pan-Europeanidentity, and that Europeanidentity is not growing, but isbecoming weaker with time.So without the support of EUcitizens, without their trust inEU institutions and policies,which is currently lacking,deeper integration will not bea workable solution.

Yet the members of the eurozone are already buildingstructures for deepeningintegration, while leaving therest of the EU outside. Howwill those new developmentsbe accommodated?Those new developmentshave weak support evenamong the population of themost pro-EU countries, andany support comes only fromdesperation and the fear thatthere is no other way out.However, an integrationplan, to be effective enoughto fight economic crises inthe present and future, wouldrequire much more. Thebanking union, for example,may sound ambitious, but infact it is a small piece of alarge mosaic, and even theso-called fiscal pact is farfrom being enough. In my

opinion, it still fails toaddress the roots of thefinancial and economic crisesin the European Union.

What is necessary can befound in the theory of opti-mum currency areas, forwhich its principal author,Robert Mundell, receivedthe Nobel Prize in Econom-ics in 1999. This theory isbased on comprehensive andglobal factual research. Itpoints out that a number ofconditions must be metbefore the creation of a com-mon currency and commonmonetary policy. A commoncurrency helps the economyinstead of harming it, butonly if the area is homoge-neous in terms of the level ofdevelopment. This is not thecase in the euro zone.

Does your conclusion drawnfrom that theory mean thatthe euro zone should breakup and Greece be kicked out?Exactly, for the good ofGreece and other countrieswhich have to leave. Theywould then have a betterchance to recover, like Ice-land has done thanks to thedevaluation of its nationalcurrency.

So in your view we shouldstick to national currencies?A narrower group of coun-tries that meets the criteriaof the theory will maintainthe common currency, butthis is absolutely impossiblefor the whole territory of theeuro zone as of today.

Another condition is a strongcentral government able tointervene in the economy ofthe area, with the power tomake massive transfers ofresources to regions and pop-ulation groups negativelyaffected by the functioning ofthe common currency. Andthis is what exists in the Unit-ed States, where the federalgovernment can make mas-sive economic interventionsin economic crises, as we sawin the most recent one. Thishas no equivalent in theEuropean Union. Here thereis over 20 times less federal-ism than in the US, if meas-ured by the share of GDPredistributed through the EUbudget as compared to theUS federal budget. The EUis too weak to meet this con-dition of the theory of opti-mum currency areas.

Let us turn to Poland’s policywithin the European Union.Foreign Minister Rados∏awSikorski is very much sup-portive of a federal structurefor the EU, while FinanceMinister Jacek Rostowskihas reservations towardsPoland joining the bankingunion. Is Poland’s Europeanpolicy clearly defined duringthe present crisis?I do not see a coherent gov-ernment policy at the time ofthe current crisis and theinternational debate aboutthe new political architectureof the European Union.There are proposals fromForeign Affairs Minister

Grzegorz Kostrzewa-Zorbas, political scientistand professor of international relations atVistula University in Warsaw, talks with WBJabout the need for fundamental democraticreforms in the European Union and the needfor Poland to have a bigger say

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UK PM to veto

EU budget?UK Prime Minister David

Cameron has said that he

would “veto” the 2014-

2020 EU budget if

“massive increases” were

proposed or if a deal that

“does not have proper

control” was presented.

“[European leaders] know

I’m capable of saying no

and if I don’t get a good

deal I’ll say no again,” he

told the BBC. Poland has

been the biggest

beneficiary of EU funds in

recent years.

Another

€375 mln

for roadsThe European Investment

Bank has agreed to lend

money to Poland’s

National Road Fund,

reported Rzeczpospolita.

The money is set aside for

the construction of a major

new road and to facilitate

investments in local

infrastructure. Of the

money lent, €300 million

will go towards the

construction of the S8

highway. The other €75

million will fund small and

medium-sized projects

dealing with infrastructure

and environmental

protection. ●

Poland needs to raise its voice to be heard in the EU,

says Mr Kostrzewa-Zorbas

Page 9: WBJ #41 2012

OCTOBER 15-21, 2012 IINNTTEERRVVIIEEWW www.wbj.pl 9

Sikorski to build a federalEU, while the Council ofMinisters, the parliamentand the president are keep-ing their distance from it. Inmy view the Polish govern-ment accepts stronger inte-gration of the EU only invery general terms. Sloganslike “we want more Europe,not less” are far from specif-ic.

Do you think that verbal sup-port from the Polish govern-ment for a policy of deep-ening integration is a usefulstrategy for Poland, and thatthe European Union does notneed reforming?It could be worse if the gov-ernment engaged Poland inan unrealistic plan for creat-ing a United States ofEurope. But to show de factopassiveness in dealing withEuropean Union problems isnot useful. It is a time whenPoland should undertakeefforts and present proposalsfor reforming the EU,because reforms are needed.In the political domain, weshould push toward moredemocracy in the EU,including democratic legit-imization of EU institutions.In the economic domain, weshould opt for lessening reg-ulations, introducing moreeconomic freedom, andreducing bureaucratic andlegal burdens for Europeanentrepreneurs.

Now the European Unionis highly secretive and unde-mocratic in its decision mak-ing. All major decisions aremade by the EuropeanCouncil and only rubber-stamped by the EuropeanParliament. The EuropeanCouncil, whose membersrepresent their nations, isnot under the democraticcontrol of the 500 million cit-izens of the EuropeanUnion. The European Par-liament is not a real parlia-ment because all bills mustcome from the Council ofthe EU or the EuropeanCommission.

How to change the sys-tem? The directly electedmembers of the EuropeanParliament should be giventhe right to initiate legisla-tion. Parliament should alsocreate – not only accept – theEuropean Commission, likeparliaments create executivecabinets. The head of theEuropean Union, who is nowHerman Van Rompuy as apowerless President of theEuropean Council, shouldreceive a real mandatethrough direct popular elec-tions held across the Euro-pean Union. I am for EUintegration, but a fully demo-cratic integration.

Poland’s foreign policy,including its European poli-cy, is an area of confronta-tion between the Civic

Platform-led governmentand the main oppositionparty Law and Justice (PiS).How do you see their rivalry?When one puts aside emo-tions that appear during dis-cussions between politiciansand looks at the facts, onecan see that there are no fun-damental differences in thefield of foreign policybetween the government andthe Law and Justice party.Both parties are for Poland’sparticipation in the EU andNATO, and close relationswith the United States. Con-trary to some insinuations,PiS is not euro-skeptic in thetrue meaning of that word,which originated in the UK.PiS is against Poland quittingthe European Union. More-over, PiS supported the Lis-bon Treaty and its ratifica-tion by Poland. The criticismexpressed by PiS is focusedmainly toward the way ourforeign policy is conductedby the government, whichthey see as being ineffective.

The problem is, there is not asingle foreign policy of theEuropean Union. How canthis be changed?All the mechanisms createdfor running a common for-eign policy of the EuropeanUnion function poorly.Speaking in one voice oninternational problems, be-ing heard in the world, shap-ing relations on an equal

footing with the US, China,Russia and other powers is adeclared priority of the EU.But there is still a lack of acommon vision for a foreignpolicy. In practice, memberstates put forward their ownand different interests.

The European ExternalAction Service, establishedby the Lisbon Treaty, startedits work almost three yearsago. It has about 140 perma-nent delegations around theworld, and many otherassets. But it is under strongcriticism from many memberstates for being bureaucratic,badly managed, ineffectiveand invisible. The fact thatdecisions to appoint diplo-mats are made exclusively byCatherine Ashton is seen asextremely undemocratic.There is also a general opin-ion that the service does notfulfill the criteria of geo-graphic balance and does notguarantee member statesproportional representation.For instance, Poland is gross-ly underrepresented: Wehave only four ambassadors,and we should have at least12.

What instruments shouldPoland use to strengthen itsposition in the EuropeanUnion and also in its exter-nal diplomatic service?We should strengthen therole of the Visegrad Group[of the Czech Republic,

Hungary, Poland and Slo-vakia] and use the mecha-nism of building coalitionswith some other new EUmembers, like Romania,Bulgaria and the Balticstates. We should also createcoalitions with political par-ties across the internal bor-ders of the EU, with businessand other interest groupsand nongovernmental organ-

izations. This is the govern-ment’s responsibility. Mo-dern diplomacy requiresmaking use of many instru-ments and the governmentoften neglects them.

Jurgen Habermas, theprominent European philo-sopher and sociologist, hasappealed recently for theEuropean Council to under-take efforts to establish abody to begin working on anew European constitution.What is your reaction tothis?I am cautious on using theword “constitution,” but if anew treaty introduces moredemocracy and transparency

in the European Union, Iwill support it. To preparesuch a document looks verydifficult, but possible. A newtreaty should also bringmore economic freedom,reduce EU bureaucracy andits outgrown legal apparatus,and contribute to the eco-nomic development ofEurope. Yet I would bestrongly against a single

comprehensive constitutiontransforming the EU into afederal state. I rather have inmind the possibility of somespecialized treaties, eachdealing with thoroughlyselected issues. One could beon economic freedom,another on democratic guar-antees in the EU, includingthe legislative process andthe role of the EuropeanParliament. But first theEuropean Union needs toconduct a comprehensivereview of existing legislation.Many excessive regulationsin the form of decisions,directives and lower-levelacts should be simplified orentirely abolished. ●

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> Establishment of companies> Accounting services> Payroll and human resources> Law and notary offices> Payment recovery and debt recovery> Permits for foreigners> Seat for the company

“Calling for a European federationmeans a dramatic detachment from

reality.”

DAILY EXECUTIVE DIGEST

S i g n u p f o r a 2 - w e e k f r e e - t r i a l ! w w w. p o l a n d a m . p lG e r m a n v e r s i o n : w w w. p o l e n a mm o r g e n . p l

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Page 10: WBJ #41 2012

OCTOBER 15-21, 201210 www.wbj.pl IINNVVEESSTTIINNGG IINN PPOOLLAANNDD

As part of its mission to support foreign investment in Poland, Warsaw Business Journalaims to recognize companies that have made a large, positive contribution with their

investments in Poland. To accomplish this goal, WBJ is organizing a competition for“Investment of the Year,” to be presented at the Investing in Poland Gala ceremony onNovember 20, 2012.

Nominees for the awards will be chosen by selected chambers of commerce partners.Below we present the profiles of two companies and their investment nominated for Invest-ment of the Year: Finnish Itella’s SSC center in Toruƒ, nominated by the Polish-Scandina-vian Chamber of Commerce, and German MTU’s diesel engine plant, nominated by thePolish-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry●

Finnish BPO companyItella has chosen thepath less trodden bylocating an SSC facilityin Toruƒ

Finnish BPO company Itella’sFinancial Shared Service Cen-tre & IT Competence Centre inToruƒ has given a major boostto the local area by providingchallenging employmentopportunities for the localworkforce. It has also shownthat advanced service facilitiescan be successfully located out-side of Poland’s major cities.

The Toruƒ center incorpo-rates a Tier 3 data center thatconnects four functions: ashared services center for theItella Group, nearshoring forcustomer operations in theScandinavian countries andGermany, BPO capabilities forPolish customers, especially infinance and accounting, and ITcompetence center operations.

The Toruƒ center becameoperational in 2011 and cur-rently employs 85 people, withthe plan being to increase head-count to 450-600. Up until thispoint, z∏.5.2 million has beeninvested in the scheme, with thecompany planning to invest atotal of €6.5 million (z∏.27 mil-lion) over a period of five years.

Itella says the investmentcan be characterized as innova-tive partly because of its loca-tion, since the northern city ofToruƒ is not normally associat-ed with large outsourcinginvestments. Most companieschoose to locate in or nearmajor cities such as Warsaw,Kraków and Wroc∏aw.

Itella also cites the center’snumerous highly developed ITplatforms and systems as beingamong the scheme’s innovativefeatures.

Sustainable investmentThe investment is also a sus-tainable one in many ways. Itel-la says the new center has pro-vided many new jobs in a citywhere there is no similar busi-ness. The center, it says, pro-

vides opportunities for youngand educated people to stay intheir place of origin and gainexperience and grow theircareers.

Moreover, the facility’s ITCompetence Centre is locatedin a refurbished 19th centuryhistorical building.

The firm also emphasizesthat the investment was carriedout according to Itella GroupCompany Responsibility Stan-dards, which indicate ways ofoperating responsibly towardscustomers, employees, part-ners and the environment.

Long-term impactOne of the major long-termimpacts the investment isexpected to have on the localarea is that, being the firstBPO center in Toruƒ, it has thepotential to be a big employerin the city and surroundingarea. The company also says itwants to involve itself in sup-porting the local universitywith its practical knowledge,

and create opportunities forstudents to gain experience bytaking part in internship pro-grams.

In terms of its impact onPoland, the company says itsdecision to locate in one of thecountry’s smaller cities hasshown that BPO companies donot necessarily need to locatein or near big and well-knownmetropolises.

“Our success in this loca-tion shows that it is a good ideaand creates a perspective forother middle and small cities toget investors from this sector,”Joanna Galuba, marketingmanager at Itella Information,wrote in an e-mailed comment.

“It is an interesting projectbecause Itella is a Finnishstate-owned company. Thismeans that the Finnish gov-ernment gave its trust to Polishemployees and accepted areduction of employees in Fin-land to gain financial andoperational benefits,” sheadded. ●

SSC investment

Itella touts Toruƒ center’ssustainability, innovativeness

Itella operates in several European Unioncountries, as well as in Norway and Russia.The company says that its internationaloperations account for about one-third of itsbusiness.

The company’s key customer industriesinclude the media, as well as the trade and

services industries. Itella Group comprises three business

groups: Itella Mail Communications, ItellaInformation and Itella Logistics. The groupis wholly owned by the Finnish state.

Net sales amounted to €1.9 billion in2011. ●

About the Itella Group

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Itella’s IT Competence Centre in Toruƒ

Engine manufacturing

MMoorree iinnnnoovvaattiioonn iinnZZaacchhooddnniiooppoommoorrsskkiieeMTU plans to build az∏.350 millionproduction plant inthe voivodship

MTU Polska, a diesel-enginemanufacturer and the Polishsubsidiary of the TognumGroup, will build a factory inStargard Szczeciƒski that willmanufacture components forTognum’s MTU brand dieseland gas engines from the sec-ond half of 2013.

The investment is valued atz∏.350 million and will involvethe establishment of a newproduction plant for enginecomponents (mainly dieselengines) for application in var-ious sectors, including formarine and rail vehicles, aswell as for power supply. Thiswill enable the Tognum Group,one of the largest producers ofdiesel engines in the world, tosignificantly increase its pro-duction capacity. In addition,the investment will include anR&D department for electron-ic components of engine con-trol systems.

Welcome jobsPolish employees will beinvolved in both preparing thesite and erecting the plantitself. The factory is expectedto become fully operational in

2015, by which time it will beemploying some 200 Poles.

That would be welcomenews in a region that has anunemployment rate well above16 percent and rising. Thecompany says there will beattractive job offers for bothblue- and white-collar employ-ees. The firm also plans towork with universities onresearch and development.The company says it will alsowork with small and medium-sized enterprises in the region.

“We don’t only want to beknown, we want to add to thedevelopment of this region,”said Karl Kollmuss, presidentof MTU Polska at the launchof construction of the factoryin July this year.

“This is a great day for ourvoivodship, for Stargard. Thebar has been set really high.But the voivodship and Star-gard are good partners to real-ize such a complicated andinnovative project,” said

Andrzej Jakubowski, DeputyVoivode of Zachodniopo-morskie voivodship, at the cer-emony.

InnovativeMTU implements highly inno-vative technologies based ondevelopments within Tognum,which has significant experi-ence with diesel enginesincluding state-of-the-artmachines and cost-effectivesolutions.

From mid-2013, productionoutput from the planned Star-gard Szczeciƒski plant willinclude cylinder heads andlarge-volume parts forTognum’s MTU brand Series2000 and 400 engines. Theywill be delivered to the assem-bly lines of a plant inFriedrichshafen, Germany andto plants in Aiken, in the Unit-ed States and Suzhou, China,where MTU engines are man-ufactured for the TognumGroup. ●

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The new factory will build diesel engine components

MTU Polska is the Polish subsidiary of the TognumGroup, one of the world’s leading specialists in engines,propulsion systems and distributed energy systems. MTUitself has existed as a firm for a century. The StargardSzczeciƒski factory will be Tognum Group’s first forayinto Poland. ●

About MTU Polska

Page 11: WBJ #41 2012

OCTOBER 15-21, 2012 OOPPIINNIIOONN && AANNAALLYYSSIISS www.wbj.pl 11

Vladimir Putin inaugurated the sec-ond line of the Nord Stream natu-

ral gas pipeline last Monday, nearlydoubling the direct natural gas transitcapacity between Russia and Ger-many to 55 billion cubic meters peryear. The Nord Stream pipeline allowsMoscow to bypass continental transitstates through an underwater route.Running under the Baltic Sea, thepipeline specifically circumvents

Ukraine, an important transit state forEurope-bound natural gas, that fre-quently is problematic for Russiawhen it tries to leave Moscow’s sphereof influence and run closer to theWest.

The geopolitical impact of theNord Stream project has promptedRussia to accelerate its strategy ofsidelining what it sees as problematictransit states through expensive directpipelines to its consumer markets.However, challenges are growing inRussia’s Western destination markets.Indeed, Europe is continuing its

efforts in becoming an integrated lib-eralized market by expanding alterna-tive sources, challenging Russia’sdecade-long dominance of the conti-nent’s energy sector.

Geopolitical advantagesThe first branch of the Nord Streampipeline became operational in May2011. To a large degree, the pipelinewas constructed in response to theEuropean energy crises of 2006, 2008and 2009, when Russia cut off suppliesto Ukraine to counter rising opposi-tion to Moscow’s influence. The sup-ply cuts affected downstream Euro-pean customers who relied onUkraine to transit Russian natural gas.To ensure stable supplies amid poten-tial future disputes with Ukraine orBelarus, Russia financed and con-structed Nord Stream, creating adirect export avenue into Germany.

Russia is slated to begin construc-tion next month on the South Streampipeline project, a tactic meant to fur-ther circumvent transit countries. TheSouth Stream pipeline will run underthe Black Sea and through the Balka-ns to deliver natural gas to southwest-ern Europe.

While constructing underwaterpipelines is incredibly expensive, suchpipelines give Moscow significantgeopolitical advantages. Not only doesit allow Russia to engage more freelyin energy wars with Ukraine, it also

allows Russia to funnel higher vol-umes of natural gas into non-Ukrain-ian pipelines. As a result, Kiev losesone of its major leverages against Rus-sia, particularly in the face of theKremlin’s push to grab ownership ofUkraine’s valuable natural gas storagenetwork.

Russia’s efforts to ensure consis-tently high volumes of natural gas tokey European markets goes beyond itsattempts to bring back some of its for-mer Soviet states within its influence.Natural gas revenues are one of thekey pillars of the Russian economy,and those revenues have begun to bethreatened by changes in the marketdynamics in the European continent.

Three strategiesThe natural gas crises of 2006, 2008and 2009 compelled Europe – particu-larly the European Union – to form aframework that would insulate thecontinent from similar shocks in thefuture. To lessen their dependence onRussian natural gas, Europeannations are pursuing three strategieson national and transnational levels.

First, the European Union enacteda set of policies to address the monop-oly of large companies, particularlyGazprom, in the continent’s naturalgas market. The bloc’s Third EnergyPackage mandates the unbundling ofproduction, transport and distributionoperations for natural gas. This legal

framework increasingly is being usedby Central European nations, espe-cially the Baltics, seeking to easeGazprom’s dominance over allbranches of their energy supplies. TheEuropean Commission’s upcomingprobe into Gazprom’s monopolisticpractices is a clear example of thegrowing pressures on Russia from theregulatory side of Europe.

Second, European nations havemade technological and politicalinvestments in developing alternativesources of natural gas. The accelerat-ed construction of liquefied naturalgas import terminals theoretically isallowing countries with sea access tobecome more energy independent,giving them greater pricing andunbundling negotiation leverage overRussia.

Third, Europe’s natural gas mar-ket is becoming increasingly integrat-ed through physical interconnectorsamong countries. This aspect ofEurope’s liberalization decreasesMoscow’s ability to create tailoredenergy strategies for different coun-tries. For example, it is offering gasdiscounts to Bulgaria to acceleratethe construction of the South Streampipeline but keeping prices high in theBaltics as a way of maintaining politi-cal pressure. A unified regional mar-ket in Central Europe already is help-ing nations insulate themselves fromminor pricing and supply differentials.

New environmentThese changes in the European natu-ral gas market pose several challengesfor Russia. Moscow is attempting tomaintain vital revenue streams fromnatural gas exports while preservingthe political advantage of being themajor supplier of a strategic commod-ity to the continent.

In this new environment, Moscowmust ensure that it continues to culti-vate good relations with its majorcustomers. For example, it may haveto become relatively accommodatingto smaller EU members. However,as long as the main heavyweights ofthe European Union – such as Ger-many – continue to receive direct,uninterrupted and cheap suppliesfrom Russia, the incentive to throwtheir support behind expensive inte-gration and diversification efforts inCentral Europe will remain limited.

Rather than only serving addi-tional natural gas demand inEurope, the expansion of NordStream and the construction ofSouth Stream are key tactics inGazprom’s response to increasingdiversification and liberalizationefforts on the continent.

“Nord Stream pipeline feedsEurope’s natural-gas dependence”

is republished with permissionof Stratfor.

Stratfor.com

On October 14, Lithuania was dueto hold the first round of parlia-

mentary elections. The second roundwill be held on October 28. Althoughthe current government of PrimeMinister Andrius Kubilius is the firstsince 1991 that has survived a fullterm, the chance that the ruling party(The Homeland Union – LithuanianChristian Democrats) will form thegovernment after these elections isclose to zero.

This year’s elections are beingheld under the shadow of the coun-try’s economic collapse. As a result ofthe global economic crisis, the BalticStates – largely dependent on foreigninvestment and foreign markets – sawtheir economies tank. Lithuania wasforced to take action to save govern-ment finances by increasing taxes andreducing pensions. In addition, food,electricity and heating prices contin-ue to rise. The government has comeunder harsh criticism for this state ofaffairs, and many blame Mr Kubiliusfor the country’s predicament.

Despite this, in recent weeks theprime minister’s party has gained afew extra points of support (as manyas 10 percent) in the polls.

Nevertheless, the opposition par-ties still enjoy the greatest popularity.These include the Social DemocraticParty, the populist Labour Party, ledby Viktor Uspaskich (who is suspect-ed of tax fraud), and the Order andJustice party, headed by impeachedformer President Rolandas Paksas.

Even so, the final results of theelection, and especially the composi-tion of the new coalition government,are difficult to predict. This year’selection campaign has revealed thegrowing fragmentation of Lithuania’spolitical scene.

Possible outcomesLithuania uses a mixed electoral sys-tem, with half of MPs elected from anational list and half elected in sin-gle-mandate constituencies.

It’s impossible to rule out a situa-tion in which the ruling party, which

is losing support, would not join anynew government, and would insteadbe replaced by the Social Democrats.That scenario would guarantee thecontinuation of a relatively restrictivefinancial policy.

Meanwhile, if the populists seizepower, it could cause a significantchange not only in domestic politics –understood as a withdrawal from arestrictive finance policy – but also inthe area of foreign policy.

The opposition parties, especiallythe Social Democrats and the LabourParty, favor improving relations withneighboring countries.

The Labour Party advocates“econonomizing” Lithuania’s foreign

policy, which in practice would meancloser relations with Russia andBelarus. Projects that enhance tradeand transportation ties between thesecountries and Lithuania would be pri-oritized.

In addition, while the Kubiliusgovernment had hoped to reduce thecountry’s energy dependence on Rus-sia, if the opposition gains power, itwill likely water down that policy.

Relations with PolandThe Social Democrats also pointout the need for changes in Lithuan-ian foreign policy, including theimprovement of relations withneighboring countries, such asPoland. However, a change ofpower does not directly guarantee abreakthrough in relations betweenPoland and Lithuania.

That’s because Polish authoritieshave made the improvement ofbilateral relations dependent uponthe extent to which Lithuania pro-tects its Polish minority. The new

government will have a limitedimpact on this issue. It requires achange of existing legislation, whichwill be up to a more or less coopera-tive parliament to make.

In this regard, a lot depends onthe political position that the Elec-toral Action of Poles in Lithuania(EAPL) takes. The party, whichrepresents the interests of the Polishminority, hopes to cross the thresh-old needed to get into parliament –5 percent of the vote. But that stillremains a big question – especiallyconsidering demographic changesand increasing emigration.

For the EAPL to gain more than5 percent of the vote, it wouldrequire not only the support of thePolish and Russian minorities, butalso at least a small percentage ofthe votes of Lithuanians.

Kinga Dudziƒska is an analystat the Polish Institute of

International Affairs PISM.pl

NNoorrdd SSttrreeaamm ppiippeelliinnee ffeeeeddssEEuurrooppee’’ss nnaattuurraall--ggaass ddeeppeennddeennccee

“This year’s elections arebeing held under the

shadow of the country’seconomic collapse”

“The Nord Streampipeline allows Moscowto bypass continentaltransit states through anunderwater route”

LLiitthhuuaanniiaann eelleeccttiioonnss –– aann ((uunn))rreeaall cchhaannccee ffoorr cchhaannggee??Kinga Dudziƒska

MANAGING EDITORGARETH PRICE([email protected])

POLITICS EDITORREMI ADEKOYA([email protected])

REAL ESTATE EDITORADAM ZDRODOWSKI([email protected])

JOURNALISTIZABELA DEPCZYK([email protected])

CONTRIBUTORSE. BLAKE BERRYEWA BONIECKAROBERTO GALEAIDAVE INGHAMMARK ORDON

COLUMNISTSADAM NARCZEWSKIANDREW NAWROCKI

PRODUCTION MANAGERPIOTR WYSKOK

GRAPHIC DESIGNER¸UKASZ MAZUREK

MARKETING &SALES

AGNIESZKA BREJWO MARKETING &SALES DIRECTOR([email protected])

MAGDALENA KARPI¡SKA([email protected])

AGNIESZKA KUCZY¡SKA([email protected])

EWA BROGOSZ-KORYCKA([email protected])

PR & MARKETING SPECIALISTKATARZYNA MAREK([email protected])

SUBSCRIPTIONS MANAGERAGNIESZKA MICHALIK([email protected])

PRINT & DISTRIBUTION COORDINATORKRZYSZTOF WILI¡SKI([email protected])

BOOK OF LISTS COORDINATORMONIKA BRYSIAK([email protected])

PUBLISHER VALKEA MEDIA SA EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ANDREW KURETH ([email protected]) MANAGING DIRECTOR MONIKA STAWICKA

Editorials are the opinions of WBJ’s editorial board. Other opinions are those of the authors alone. Comments, opinions and letters should be sent to [email protected]. Please include a name and contact information and clearly indicate if they are to be considered for publication.

Stratfor

Page 12: WBJ #41 2012

OCTOBER 15-21, 2012CCOOVVEERR SSTTOORRYY12

Asseco Poland

management

reduced

IT company Asseco

Poland has decided that

there is no need for

separate vice presidents

to manage its

infrastructure

department, building

automation department

and its data center,

Parkiet reported. Owing

to the changes Wojciech

Woêniak, head of the

division created after the

merger of subsidiaries

Asseco Systems and

Alatus, has stepped

down. Another change in

Asseco came after

Wies∏aw Walendziak, vice

president of Prokom

Investments, resigned

from his position on

Asseco Poland’s board,

after holding it for a little

over two months.

ZUS to

announce

IT tendersAt the beginning of next

year, Poland’s state-run

Social Insurance

Institution (ZUS) will take

concrete steps towards

tackling its dependence

on its sole IT services

supplier – Asseco Poland

– and will announce two

tenders. Apart from

weakening Asseco

Poland’s position with

relation to ZUS, the move

is also intended to cut

costs for network

maintenance.

Smartphones

fuel online

gaming marketCentral and Eastern

Europe’s market for

video games accessed

online is projected to

increase to z∏.6.02 billion

from a present value of

z∏.3.8 billion by 2016,

according to Roland

Berger Strategy

Consultants. During the

same period, the global

casual game market is

expected to grow to $46

billion.

Officials target

counterfeits

The Polish Security

Printing Works (PWPW)

and the Ministry of

Finance have presented a

new system of verification

of product excise bands,

which is expected to

make it easier for

consumers to verify the

legality of products they

buy. The move is aimed at

curbing illegal cigarette

and alcohol sales. ●

www.wbj.pl

Cloud computing is a growingworldwide trend, due to itsflexibility, easier cost controland user-friendly access. Thenew technology is also gainingground in Poland: A study byCisco earlier this year showedthat 42 percent of Polish busi-nesses now use the cloud insome shape or form.

Yet even owners of thesesame businesses view datasecurity in the cloud as theirbiggest concern and areequally skeptical that theresources available in Poland– financial and technical – canencourage further develop-ment.

Are these justified concernsor symptoms of hi-tech anxi-ety?

At least one authority inPoland shares the skepticism.Wojciech Rafa∏ Wiewiórkows-ki, inspector general for per-sonal data protection inPoland, stated outright latelast year that in his opinion,the level of security in thecloud is not sufficient to allowthe safe processing of person-

al data. One of the conclusionsat a cloud computing confer-ence held at the end of May inWarsaw was that processingdata in a cloud is cheap andconvenient, but not always

safe.

Cloud security a priorityIt seems though that cloudvendors are putting a lot ofemphasis on the security

aspect. Grzegorz Dobrowols-ki, sales manager for data cen-ter and virtualization at CiscoSystems Poland, said thatsecurity is a key part of theCisco cloud strategy, whichprovides cloud solutions forprivate, public, and hybridclouds.

Mr Dobrowolski said this isassured by the Cisco SecureXtechnology, an integral part ofall Cisco architectures. It is acontext-aware security frame-work that allows customers toeasily define and manage busi-ness-relevant security policies.It provides further securityenforcement elements in theform of appliances, modules,and cloud services. Mostimportantly, he added, thesemechanisms have been proveneffective.

Large cloud serviceproviders such as Amazon,CSC, IBM, Salesforce.comand Verizon Business havebuilt robust security mecha-nisms – offering both applica-tion-level security as well asfirewalls and encryption at theinfrastructure level. Theseservice providers store mil-lions of gigabytes of sensitivedata in the cloud and have sofar suffered no serious securitybreaches.

Hard to believe? A recentarticle on cloud computing onbusinessinsurance.com, a US-based portal for risk and bene-fit management experts, seemsto confirm the claim. Withlarge companies entrustingmore and more of their data to

external sources, the stakesare high and security has thehighest priority. In fact, theconclusion is drawn that “databreaches seem to be every-where these days except theone place everybody fears –the cloud.”

The author quotes JayHeiser, vice president ofresearch at technology con-sultant Gartner Inc. “Cloudproviders put more emphasison security than other entities.If they didn’t, they’d fall over.”

Other experts agree.“Potential data breaches in thecloud are talked about a lot,but there hasn’t been much topoint to,” said David Black,chief information security offi-cer at Aon eSolutions, thetechnology solutions businessof Chicago-based Aon Corp.“The reality is that cloud ven-dors know that security is thebig risk to their entire businessmodel. If they were to experi-ence a major breach, they’resure to go out of business,” headded.

Mr Wiewiórkowski, Po-land’s inspector general, alsoadmits that in terms of classicprotection from unwantedaccess to data, cloud solu-tions can be safer than tradi-tional technologies. Mostdata centers are well protect-ed against external attacks,while centralized data storagemeans limited sources of apotential data leak. The realconcern in his view is thematter of who has legalaccess to data stored in a

Polish businesses areusing the cloud in evergreater numbers. Butis it secure enough?

The European Union uses a definitionwhich declares that cloud computing con-sists of a set of technologies and servicemodels that focus on the internet-based useand delivery of IT applications and services.Cloud computing can generate significanteconomic benefits, because on-demandresources can be configured, expanded andaccessed on the internet quite easily.

However, the most common definitionreferred to as of late is the one presented bythe National Institute of Standards andTechnology (NIST) of the US Departmentof Commerce in September 2011:

“Cloud computing is a model forenabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool ofconfigurable computing resources (e.g.,networks, servers, storage, applications,and services) that can be rapidly provi-sioned and released with minimal manage-ment effort or service provider interaction.This cloud model is composed of five essen-tial characteristics, three service models,and four deployment models.” ●

Source: NIST Special Publication 800-145,September 2011

Cloud computing definitions

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The cloud can sometimes be safer than more traditional alternative technologies

PPrriivvaattee CClloouudd - The cloud infrastructure is pro-visioned for exclusive use by a single organiza-tion comprising multiple consumers (e.g., busi-ness units). It may be owned, managed, andoperated by the organization, a third party, orsome combination thereof, and it may exist onor off premises. Source: NIST Special Publica-tion 800-145, September 2011

PPuubblliicc CClloouudd - The cloud infrastructure isprovisioned for open use by the general public.It may be owned, managed, and operated by abusiness, academic, or government organiza-tion, or some combination thereof. It exists on

the premises of the cloud provider. Source:NIST Special Publication 800-145, September2011

HHyybbrriidd CClloouudd - The cloud infrastructure is acomposition of two or more distinct cloudinfrastructures (private, community, or public)that remain unique entities, but are boundtogether by standardized or proprietary tech-nology that enables data and application porta-bility (e.g., cloud bursting for load balancingbetween clouds) ●

Source: NIST Special Publication 800-145,September 2011

Cloud computing deploymentmodels include:

The Cloud

Cloud computing presentsopportunities, poses threats

Mark Ordon

Page 13: WBJ #41 2012

OCTOBER 15-21, 2012 CCOOVVEERR SSTTOORRYY www.wbj.pl 13

cloud and how that data canbe processed.

Who can access data?Today it is difficult to contractu-ally limit the number of entitiesthat can legally access datastored in a cloud, the chiefinspector said.

Of course, a cloud vendorwill always assure that we havefull and exclusive control overour data, but we cannot becompletely sure that the dataaren’t processed by third par-ties. In many cases, we may notbe aware of the obligations acloud provider may have to pro-vide data to public authorities(especially police or specialservices). For example, in theUnited States, special serviceshave broad uncontrolled accessto such data. This creates majorissues for the data owner, who islegally required to have fullcontrol of how it is processed,especially when sensitive per-sonal data is concerned.

Is there a way around thisissue? Thomas Trappler, a US-based cloud computing riskmitigation expert agrees thatdata access and protection arekey issues to address wheninvestigating or adopting acloud computing service.

How do you ensure that youhave continued access to yourdata, and that others whoshouldn’t be able to access yourdata don’t? He suggests that tohelp mitigate risk in this area,it’s important to take a deeper

dive on the infrastructure andsecurity issues when a firmcomes to do its research.

Cloud providers are, ofcourse, quite aware of thesegrowing concerns and areaddressing them. So for exam-ple, in addition to technologysolutions for cloud security,Cisco also provides advisoryservices to help customers withcloud deployments.

Mr Dobrowolski explainedthat cloud computing repre-sents a shift to new technolo-gies, but even more important-ly, it means a shift to new busi-ness computing models. Sowhen we talk about security ofthe cloud, it is important to bearin mind that cloud securityactually begins with governanceconsiderations. Providers ofcloud services as well as sub-scribers to those services needto ensure that their organiza-tional governance is up to dateto support these changes. Allrelated policies and proceduresneed to be updated. Subscribersneed also to review informationoffered by their cloud providerto understand how providersmanage application develop-ment, infrastructure design,security architecture and imple-mentation, as well as monitor-ing, auditing, and security inci-dent response processes.

But, he stressed, security isnot the responsibility of cloudproviders alone. If a subscriberdoes not have sound gover-nance and a strong security pos-

ture to start with, moving to thecloud will not solve their securi-ty problems.

What’s next?There still remains a lot to bedone in creating perfectlysecure cloud environments,especially in the moreabstract area of cloud securi-ty governance, but the obvi-ous financial and flexibilitybenefits are an encourage-ment. Mr Wiewiórkowskidefinitely sees a future forthe cloud, although he

remains cautions. He woulddefinitely use the technologyfor non-sensitive data, butwould rather keep personaldata in-house.

Nevertheless many com-panies have made the leap.Mr Dobrowolski gives theexample of Salesforce.com,which offers very successfulbusiness cloud applicationsdealing with highly sensitivecorporate data. Also, headded, people use the tech-nology every single day, evenwithout consciously thinking

that they’re in the cloud –Facebook is a good examplehere.

He acknowledged thatcompanies which are consid-ering a migration to either aprivate, public or hybridcloud should take securityvery seriously. But if properlyimplemented, use of a cloudcan bring many benefits.Above all, cloud governanceimplicates an increased needin visibility and auditingcapabilities between dataowner and cloud provider. ●

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Use of the cloud is becoming increasingly popular among Polish firms

Shale gas

exploration

struggles

Companies looking for

shale gas in Poland are

progressing much slower

than expected, blaming

bureaucracy and

uncertainty regarding

future tax burdens. They

have made only 30

vertical drillings, seven

fracturing operations,

and just two horizontal

drillings, according to

data from the Ministry of

Environment, as reported

by Rzeczpospolita.

PZU to spend

z∏.7.5 bln on

acquisitionsPoland’s largest insurer

PZU has a fair amount of

cash that it’s willing to

spend on acquisitions

outside of its home

market. “We have some

z∏.5 billion of free cash,

which could be raised to

approximately z∏.7.5

billion with a loan,”

Andrzej Klesyk, CEO of

PZU, told Reuters in an

interview. He also said

that the insurer could

team up with certain

private equity funds to

finance some bigger

transactions. ●

Page 14: WBJ #41 2012

OCTOBER 15-21, 2012MMEEDDIIAA PPAATTRROONNAAGGEE14 www.wbj.pl

Business innovation

‘Business is Talking’ conferenceoffers discussion on technology, innovation

On October 4, Netia’s “Busi-ness is Talking” congressbrought together 1,200 partici-pants, special guests and severalhundred more who followedthe presentations and debatesonline.

This edition’s theme was“Integration – Innovation –Inspiration.” In line with this,participants had the opportuni-ty to listen to presentations bysome special guests, amongthem the cofounder of photo-sharing website Flickr, StewartButterfield. Mr Butterfieldtalked about his experience ofworking with Flickr, and sharedhis observations on the impactof innovation on creating start-ups.

Ludo Wijckmans, who leadsthe sector of communicationand media in the EMEA regionat Microsoft, was also a specialguest speaker at the congress.Mr Wijckmans talked aboutinnovation and the newesttrends in business, as well as thefuture of technology.

Another guests speaker wasMikko Hypponen, the chiefresearch officer in F-Secureand an expert on cyber-crime

and online security. He spokeabout the ways in which compa-nies can deal with global net-work threats, as well as the mostmodern ways companies canprotect themselves.

Finally Tomas Qvist, vicepresident of business unit net-works HR and organization atEricsson, spoke about the inno-vation and world trends in tech-nology.

Renata Filipek-Bary∏owska,director of commercial busi-ness, customers division atNetia, said that her companyaims to deliver the values thatthe congress was promoting –integration, innovation andinspiration – to its clients.

“Netia and our comprehen-sive solutions provide our cus-tomers with inspiration everyday,” Ms Filipek Bary∏owskasaid. “Among the innovationsthat we have introduced to ourclients, one can find video con-ferences Netia Video Any-where, which is accessible on allmobile devices and computers.”

For those who were unableto attend the congress in per-son, Netia prepared an liveonline feed in HD. All the pre-

sentations and speeches werealso recorded and will soon bemade available at biznestoroz-mowy.pl.

In addition, the congress’participants who use iOS or

Android mobile devices wereable to download the agenda,create their own schedule andread speaker bios. The app wasused by nearly half of the partic-ipants, Netia says. ●

The congress, organized by Netia, aimed topromote “integration, innovation andinspiration” in business

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Stewart Butterfield, cofounder of photosharing

website Flickr

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Miros∏aw Godlewski, president and chief executive

officer at Netia

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Netia aims to deliver the values the congress was promoting – integration,

innovation and inspiration

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The congress brought together 1,200 people

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OCTOBER 15-21, 2012 PPOOLLIITTIICCSS www.wbj.pl 15

Political PR

CCrreeaattiinngg cchhaarriissmmaa

Remi Adekoya: How do youassess the recent moves byopposition Law and Justice(PiS), which has organizeddebates, a street protest andannounced its candidate forprime minister all in the spaceof a few weeks?Piotr Tymochowicz: First, PiSorganized an economicdebate. Then it organized aprotest march and finally itannounced a professor as itsPM candidate. The chronolog-ical sequence was meant tocreate the impression that PiShas a perfectly-prepared planfor everyone. For the religious,the nationalistic and, in gener-al, the whole country.

During the protest, severalaspects were employed: thereligious, with a priest leadingmass before the march; thematerial, with the involvementof the Solidarity labor union;the political, with PiS’sinvolvement; and there wasalso a nationalistic element.

But is organizing a protestmarch one day and presentinga professor as a candidate forprime minister the next acohesive PR campaign? In the first Italian restaurantsopened in Warsaw, you couldorder pizza and spaghetti aswell as Polish pork chops andcabbage. The fact the menuwas not cohesive didn’t botherthe clients.

You notice such inconsis-tencies if you are a journalistor a PR specialist. The con-sumer doesn’t see it, just likehe doesn’t wonder why he canorder pork chops in an Italianrestaurant. What he sees isthat there is something helikes in PiS’s program.

Nationalists see PiS has anoffer for them; that’s all thatinterests them. Those whowant economic change see PiShas a relatively cohesive eco-nomic plan and that’s enoughfor them, too.

In that sense, PiS’s movesare good PR-wise. Nobodylikes everything in New Yorkbut everyone can find some-thing they do like. It’s thesame with political parties.

PiS is obviously waiting for aserious crisis in order to winback power. But do you thinkthat in a crisis, Poles would gofor a radical party?Not every country that experi-enced a crisis in the 1930s went

fascist. But that’s not becausethose countries had differentmentalities. Please rememberthat nations as different asItaly and Japan embraced fas-cism.

It’s simply a question ofwhether such a radical politi-cal offer appears during a cri-sis – an offer which providesescapism.

During a crisis, people feelthey have nothing to lose andthat only a so-called strongman can lead them out of thewilderness. Weak people inparticular want to hide underthe wings of someone whoappears omnipotent.

Do you think Poles view PiSleader Jaros∏aw Kaczyƒski asa strong man?Unfortunately, yes, thanks toPR. Do you think Adolf Hitlerwas a strong man? He was ascrawny little wimp you couldknock down with one finger.But his image was created byPR. Stalin, on the other hand,was a strong man – as well as apsychopath.

How can the Democratic LeftAlliance (SLD), the party youcurrently advise, operate in apolitical scene dominated bytwo conservative parties, POand PiS with 70 percent sup-port between them? MaybePoles are natural conserva-tives?Poles are not natural conserva-tives. Poland is divided alongtwo fault lines. The first is geo-graphical with vast differencesvisible depending on whichforeign power ruled a particu-lar region 150 years ago: Prus-sia, Russia or Austria.

Then there is the genera-tional divide. Older peopledon’t want anything new butthe young ones have the inter-net, they travel and they aregetting increasingly angry atwhat is happening in Poland.They won’t be locked up inconservative cages. The partythat presents them the bestoffer will win the next elec-tions.

SLD has three opponents:[the ruling] Civic Platform(PO), PiS and the relationsbetween those two parties.The bigger the battle betweenthose two parties, the worsefor SLD because then all theattention is on PiS and PO.

SLD must show that, ulti-mately, both parties are simi-

lar, the only difference beingthat one is more conciliatoryand the other is more radical.

When Prime Minister DonaldTusk was an opposition politi-cian, he was often described asweak, dull and uninspiring.Today he is considered astrong leader, some even say astatesman. Why did percep-tions of him change so drasti-cally?There are two ways to createthe image of a politician. Whois charismatic? The personwho has an aura of charismaabout him and/or the personwho is a very skilled politician.Those two characteristics cango together or a politicianmight have one but not theother.

When Donald Tusk wasleader of the opposition, hehad the aura of position but hedidn’t have the skills needed tobe convincing. People saw thatcontradiction and thus didn’thave a high opinion of him.Today, he has learned the skillsneeded to be a convincingleader.

Who in your opinion is themost charismatic public figurein Poland?Father Tadeusz Rydzyk [thecontroversial ultra-conserva-tive Catholic priest]. He is anabsolute genius. And there aresome who have the aura butno skills whatsoever. Jaros∏awKaczyƒski, for example, isintellectually weak and haspoor skills.

Then why is he the leader ofthe right?There are several conservativepoliticians who are strongerand wiser than Mr Kaczyƒski.But none will allow the otherto be leader. They would sliteach other’s throats if they hadto compete for power.

So the best option is to picka cleaning lady who will not bea threat to any of them. Onlyon that condition can theycooperate. And it will be intheir common interest to con-vince people that the cleaninglady is the most charismaticperson in Poland. That’s howJaros∏aw Kaczyƒski was creat-ed. After all, he used to cleanLech Wa∏´sa’s shoes in thepast – and I mean that literally.

Who do you think is also leader-ship material apart from FatherRydzyk?Foreign Minister Rados∏awSikorski, who is underrated inPoland. He should havebecome president, not Bro-nis∏aw Komorowski. He wouldbe a strong president.

But Poles seem satisfied withPresident Komorowski. His

approval ratings are sky-high.He is successful because he isfrom a popular party, PO. Hewould never have become pres-ident if he was not a member ofPO. In terms of his image, he iswinning because he is wishy-washy. A strong president froma strong party would arousehuge aggression.

But Mr Komorowski did arouseaggression from PiS supportersat the beginning of his presiden-cy.For some time, but he did theright thing by not respondingand avoiding confrontation.And so the shots in his directionnever hit the bull’s eye.

Does it take a specific type ofpersonality to be successful inpolitics?You have to be a psychopath towant to become prime ministeror president. You must be autis-tic to condemn your family towhat is, in effect, a kind of suf-fering for the rest of their livesjust because you want to ruleother people.

A normal person wouldn’tdo that to his family. Politiciansalso often have huge inferioritycomplexes. They feel better in aherd. Political parties are herds.And they win elections not forthe country but so the herd canhave the benefits, material andotherwise, of power.

Meanwhile, the man whowants to be at the top wantsto control the distribution ofthose benefits and in that

way control the herd.

What has changed in politi-cal PR over the last twodecades?It used to be parties whodecided everything. Today,it’s the masses who decide.Before, we used to do sur-veys to find out what level of

taxes people wanted and thatsort of thing.

Today, we do surveys todecide what demeanor apolitician should adopt.Should he be aggressive orconciliatory towards a jour-nalist? Should he smile dur-ing a TV interview? If, yes,how often during 15 min-utes? How should he smile,ironically or contemptuous-ly? Everything is pre-planned.

Donald Tusk uses suchsurveys. I recently asked mytrainees to conduct a surveyasking how people want thePM to behave regarding par-ticular issues.

And then I observed MrTusk. I saw that he actedexactly the way people want-

ed him to act, according toour survey.

But people as a groupalso learn and you can’trepeat the same cases all thetime. Unless you have aprimitive electorate like PiSdoes. Then you can repeatthe same cases and they’llkeep buying it.

Finally, what do you thinkhappened to Janusz Palikot?He showed a lot of promisebut seems to be fading awaynow.Janusz Palikot is very intelli-gent but he also has a hugeego. I warned him that if hethinks he does not need tostimulate his supporterseveryday he is mistaken. Hefelt he knew better. It’s apity, but that often happensto people who have achieveda lot in life. At a certainpoint, they feel they knowbest and don’t need advi-sors.

However, a wise leader isone who surrounds himselfwith people wiser than him-self when it comes to partic-ular issues. ●

WBJ sits down with well-known political PRstrategist Piotr Tymochowicz, who has advisedpoliticians such as former Prime MinisterLeszek Miller, farmer turned deputy PMAndrzej Lepper and political maverick JanuszPalikot. Here, he discusses PR in politics today,perceptions of charisma and how politicalimages are created

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Piotr Tymochowicz says you have to be a “psychopath” to want to be president or

prime minister

“There are several conservativepoliticians who are stronger and

wiser than Mr Kaczyƒski. But nonewill allow the other to be leader”

Page 16: WBJ #41 2012

LLOOKKAALLEE IIMMMMOOBBIILLIIAAW a r s a w B u s i n e s s J o u r n a l ’s w e e k l y s u p p l e m e n t o n r e a l e s t a t e , c o n s t r u c t i o n a n d d e v e l o p m e n t OCTOBER 15-21, 2012, LI 17/41

1817

Skanska Property Poland isabout to launch its first officeproject in Kraków

Construction on Nowy ÂwiatBIS offices is set tocommence in Q2 2013

GTC sole owner

of Wilanów mallWSE-listed developer

Globe Trade Centre (GTC)

has acquired from Polnord

the remaining 50% stake

in the planned Galeria

Wilanów shopping center

project in Warsaw. It has

thus become the sole

owner of the 80,000-sqm

scheme. The first to be

developed will be a

60,000-sqm phase whose

value is estimated at €160

million. GTC plans to go

ahead with construction

on Galeria Wilanów as

soon as it has obtained all

the administrative permits

for the mall.

Echo to open

outlet center

Warsaw Stock Exchange-

listed developer Echo

Investment is set to open

the first phase of its

Outlet Park Szczecin

retail project in Szczecin

in northwestern Poland

on November 7. The

scheme, which is already

almost fully leased out,

will house 70 retail

units. ●

Poland at Expo Real . . . . . . . . .16

Skanska in Kraków . . . . . . . . . .17

S+B plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

Chopin Airport City . . . . . . . . . .17

New BBI projects . . . . . . . . . . . .17

Kraków revitalization . . . . . . . .18

Nowy Świat offices . . . . . . . . . .18

Property-related stocks . . . . . .18

In this issue

Expo Real 2012

PPoollaanndd sshhiinneess aatt MMuunniicchh pprrooppeerrttyy ffaaiirrInvestors commendedthe stability of thecountry’s market andexpressed optimismabout its potential forgrowth

Poland provided a strong pres-ence and enjoyed significantinvestor attention at this year’sExpo Real commercial prop-erty fair in Munich, Germany,with the stability of the coun-try’s real estate market prov-ing to be a recurrent theme atthe event.

Sustained interestAsked about investor inquiriesconcerning Poland at thisyear’s Expo Real, Przemys∏awFelicki, director in the capitalmarkets department ofCBRE, stressed that the coun-try continues to see consider-able demand for prime com-mercial space.

“Both the funds which arealready present in our marketand those, including entitiesfrom the US and Scandinavia,which are still preparing for anentry, are interested in newacquisitions in Poland, MrFelicki said.

He added that investorswere looking for products inthe office, retail and logisticssectors alike. When it comesto office space, investors weremostly interested in Warsawlocations, whereas in the retail

segment of the market therewas also demand for primeregional malls.

According to Mr Felicki,the commercial propertyinvestment volume in Polandamounted to €1.1 billion in thefirst three quarters of 2012.“By the end of the year, thefigure will likely go up toaround €2 billion so theprospects are promising,” hesaid.

Market stabilityDuring a special panel discus-sion devoted to Poland, rep-resentatives of two of thelargest investment fundsactive in the country com-mended the Polish market forits stability and liquidity, say-ing that these factors allowfor a relatively safe allocationof assets.

Stefan Brendgen, CEO atAllianz Real Estate Ger-many, noted that investmentin real estate remains anattractive option, comparedto other alternatives, includ-ing bonds.

He added that manyWestern European cities,including London, Paris andsome German cities, are nowoverpriced. Warsaw offersyields of from 6.5 percent to 7percent, which are unheardof in many other Europeanmarkets, Mr Brendgen said.

Bernhard Berg, memberof the executive committee of

IVG Immobilien, said thathis company is focusing onthe office sector in Poland,which it sees as very liquidand offering stable incomeand good returns. IVG hasalready raised €100 million inequity for its IVG Warsawfund.

Growth potentialThe Polish capital remainedin the spotlight as the Polishcity which has been getting byfar the most investor atten-tion of late. Discussionsfocused on issues including

the amount of new office sup-ply that Warsaw could seedeveloped in upcoming years.

Warsaw City Hall repre-sentatives stressed that thereare still gaps to fill in a num-ber of central locations in thecity and that investors arewelcome to propose high-riseprojects in places includingthe capital’s Wola district.

Micha∏ Olszewski, deputymayor of Warsaw, said thataccording to some estimatesthe existing office supply inthe capital could double toaround six million sqm by

2016. Marcin Juszczyk, boardmember at Capital Park,added that up to five millionsqm could now be in thepipeline in the city.

He stressed, however, thatthe pace of developmentcould be slower due to factorsincluding difficulties inobtaining bank financing.IVG’s Berg and Allianz’sBrendgen agreed that theWarsaw market is in forgrowth since it is still relative-ly small, compared to some ofits West European peers.

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There was a lot of interest in the Warsaw stand at this year’s Expo Real

Page 17: WBJ #41 2012

OCTOBER 15-21, 2012 LLOOKKAALLEE IIMMMMOOBBIILLIIAA –– RREEAALL EESSTTAATTEE www.wbj.pl 17

Seen and heard at Expo Real 2012

Skanska launches Kraków projectDeveloper Skanska PropertyPoland announced it hadreceived a building permit for,and would soon launch con-struction on, its Kapelanka 42office project in Kraków, thecompany’s first scheme in thecity.

The investment will com-prise two nine-storey build-ings offering a total of approx-imately 30,000 sqm of leasableclass-A space. The first phaseof the development will deliv-er over 12,000 sqm of GLAscheduled to be completed atthe turn of Q2 and Q3 2014.

Meanwhile, the companycontinues preparatory workon new Warsaw investmentsthat will involve the construc-tion of several office buildingsin the area of the capital’sRondo ONZ and Rondo

Daszyƒskiego roundabouts.Waldemar Olbryk, presi-

dent of Skanska PropertyPoland’s management board,said that his company should

be able to present a prelimi-nary architectural vision forthe development in the latterlocation before the end of thisyear. AAZZ

Real estate company S+BGruppe is planning a newoffice investment in Warsawthat will be located on ul.Królewska in the capital’s cen-tral business district, said

Johannes Bauer from thefirm’s CEE asset managementteam.

The development will com-prise over 6,000 sqm of space.S+B Gruppe is now in the

process of obtaining adminis-trative permits for the schemeand expects to launch con-struction on the project nextyear, Mr Bauer added.

AAZZ

“Polish Airports” State Enter-prise (PPL), the operator of theWarsaw Chopin Airport in thePolish capital, was presenting itsplanned Chopin Airport Cityoffice project at Warsaw’s ExpoReal stand this year.

The company is looking fora partner with whom it coulddevelop the scheme, which willbe located on 22.5 hectares ofland lying adjacent to the air-port and will comprise 17 officebuildings with additional func-tions offering a total of over170,000 sqm of usable floorspace.

Micha∏ Marzec, generaldirector of PPL, said that there

was substantial investor interestin the scheme during the fairand that by this time next yearthe company would like to havea shortlist of potential partnerswith whom it will enter detailednegotiations.

He added that PPL hopes to

break ground on the ChopinAirport City development in2014. According to Mr Marzec,who stressed that his companyis not in a hurry as it focuses onits core business, the wholeproject could take up to 10years to construct. AAZZ

Lokale Immobilia reports on some of the major planned real estate projects in Polandthat were being presented or discussed at the Munich property fair this year.

S+B plans new Warsaw scheme

Warsaw Stock Exchange-listeddeveloper BBI DevelopmentNFI is planning a new project inWarsaw that will be located inthe northern part of the capital,said Micha∏ Skotnicki, presi-dent of the company’s manage-ment board.

For the time being, BBI isnot revealing any details per-taining to the scheme. Mean-

while, the company is continu-ing preparatory work on a num-ber of other, previouslyannounced, investments in thePolish capital.

The company is awaiting abuilding permit for its NowySezam office development inWarsaw’s downtown. It alsohopes to develop a high-risebuilding standing approximate-

ly 180 meters tall, which willdeliver around 55,000 sqm ofspace.

BBI is now also going aheadwith construction on the firstphase of the residential part ofits Koneser mixed-use realestate project in Warsaw’sPraga Pó∏noc district, which willdeliver around 90 homes, MrSkotnicki said. AAZZ

Chopin Airport City attracts investors

BBI plans to build in northern Warsaw

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Kapelanka 42

Chopin Airport City

Page 18: WBJ #41 2012

OCTOBER 15-21, 2012LLOOKKAALLEE IIMMMMOOBBIILLIIAA –– RREEAALL EESSTTAATTEE18 www.wbj.pl

Security Closing % change 52-week 52-week % change Total Marketprice (week) low high (year) shares value

on Oct 11 (z∏. mln)

BUDIMEX 55.85 -3.04 45.85 88.35 71.55 25,530,098 1,425.86

CELTIC 8.10 -4.14 7.02 20.30 19.01 34,231,466 277.27

DOMDEV 28.10 -2.09 23.51 42.80 25.04 24,715,272 694.50

ECHO 4.62 8.71 3.05 4.67 3.44 420,000,000 1,940.40

ELBUDOWA 111.90 3.61 87.00 120.00 100.00 4,747,608 531.26

ENERGOPLD 0.39 85.71 0.17 2.71 2.45 70,972,001 27.68

ERBUD 14.69 7.54 11.33 23.20 19.60 12,677,956 186.24

GANT 3.81 -9.50 3.37 9.85 7.35 20,120,000 76.66

GTC 7.80 2.63 5.20 12.49 10.98 319,372,990 2,491.11

HBPOLSKA 0.04 100.00 0.01 1.43 0.75 210,558,445 8.42

JWCONSTR 3.66 -12.65 3.66 8.42 6.10 54,073,280 197.91

LCCORP 1.15 -0.86 0.85 1.48 0.98 447,558,311 514.69

MARVIPOL 9.71 -2.80 6.20 11.00 7.25 36,923,400 358.53

MIRBUD 1.16 0.87 0.98 2.68 2.41 75,000,000 87.00

MOSTALWAR 14.00 -2.10 11.30 25.88 21.00 20,000,000 280.00

MOSTALZAB 1.19 -2.46 0.81 1.80 1.14 149,130,538 177.47

ORCOGROUP 9.78 27.01 6.36 19.55 17.90 107,840,962 1,054.68

PBG 6.31 3.27 3.36 92.00 62.00 14,295,000 90.20

PLAZACNTR 2.20 -7.95 1.93 2.94 1.88 297,181,703 653.80

POLAQUA 3.60 2.56 3.30 8.18 7.50 27,500,100 99.00

POLIMEXMS 0.66 -16.46 0.48 2.04 1.60 521,154,076 343.96

POLNORD 13.52 -7.21 10.49 19.85 11.03 23,798,439 321.75

RANKPROGR 10.10 16.09 7.10 16.97 9.60 37,145,050 375.17

ROBYG 1.35 3.85 1.08 1.75 1.10 257,935,500 348.21

RONSON 0.78 -2.50 0.61 1.15 1.00 272,360,000 212.44

TRAKCJA 0.86 -2.27 0.65 1.87 1.39 232,105,480 199.61

ULMA 41.80 6.63 37.20 74.80 62.90 5,255,632 219.69

UNIBEP 4.98 3.97 3.60 6.28 6.08 34,021,684 169.43

WARIMPEX 3.19 0.00 2.64 5.70 5.43 54,000,000 172.26

ZUE 7.37 1.66 5.07 8.50 8.98 22,000,000 162.14

Property-related stocks

Kraków touts huge NowaHuta revitalization schemeAt this year’s Expo Real thecity of Kraków was touting“Kraków – Nowa Huta of theFuture” – a major post-indus-trial area revitalization projectthat, the municipal authoritiesclaim, is the largest scheme ofits kind in Europe.

In March this year, aninternational competition wasannounced for the redevelop-ment and revitalization proj-

ect that is expected to trans-form over 5,000 hectares ofland in Kraków’s Nowa Hutadistrict.

Rafa∏ Kulczycki, actingdirector of the city strategyand development departmentat Kraków City Hall, said thatelements of the best designswill be used while developingthe project, which will includeextensive commercial spaces,

eco-housing and green areas.Mr Kulczycki said that

there are investors interestedin the scheme, and that CityHall also hopes to obtain EUfunds for the project. He saidconstruction on the massiveinvestment will likely com-mence after 2014 and take aslong as two or three decadesto complete.

AAZZ

Construction on Nowy ÂwiatBIS offices to launch next yearCentrum Bankowo FinansoweNowy Âwiat plans to launchconstruction on its Nowy ÂwiatBIS office building in down-town Warsaw in April nextyear. The almost 11,000-sqmfacility is scheduled to beturned over for use in June2015.

The development, which isbeing designed by the AMC –Andrzej M. Cho∏dzyƒski stu-dio, will be located on War-saw’s ul. Nowy Âwiat, next tothe Warsaw Stock Exchangebuilding, and will include retailspaces and an undergroundparking lot.

The investor has contract-ed a team of office buildingaccreditation experts from

Jones Lang LaSalle to obtain aLEED “Core & Shell” certifi-cate of energy efficiency and

environmental performancefor the planned scheme.

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Page 19: WBJ #41 2012

OCTOBER 15-21, 2012 TTHHEE LLIISSTT www.wbj.pl 19

Corporate Services

HR Companies – Temporary Work AgenciesRanked by number of temporary employees converted to FTE in 2010 www.bookoflists.pl

Notes: NR = Not Ranked, WND = Would Not Disclose. Research for the list was conducted in October 2011.Number of employees and ownership structure are as of September 2011. All information pertains to the compa-nies’ activities in Poland. Companies not responding to our survey are not listed. Footnotes: (1) Consolidated data of Trenkwalder & Partner Sp. z o.o., Trenkwalder Patron Sp. z o.o., and Trenkwalder Benefit Sp. z o.o.

To the best of WBJ ’s knowledge, the information is accurate as of press time. While every effort is made to ensure accuracy and thorough-ness, omissions and typographical errors may occur. Corrections or additions to The List should be sent, on official letterhead, to WarsawBusiness Journal, attn. Monika Brysiak, ul. Elblàska 15/17, 01-747 Warsaw, via fax to (+48) 22 639-8569, or via e-mail [email protected]. Copyright 2011, Valkea Media SA. The List may not be reprinted or reproduced in whole or in part without prior writ-ten permission of the publisher. Reprints are available.

Rank

Company nameAddressTel./FaxE-mailWeb page

Total number oftemporaryworkers

Number ofmanual workers

Number ofoffice workers

Revenue fromtemporary

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Ownership: Polish /Foreign

Top local executive /Title

1

Grupa Randstad Al. Jerozolimskie 56C, 00-803 Warsaw22 462-2500/22 [email protected]

WND9,6947,587

WND5,4524,922

WND4,2422,665

WND439.1330.3

WNDWNDWNDWND

WNDWNDWND

3,08552

123WND

3911994

WNDKajetan S∏onina

General Director

2

Work Service SAul. Ruska 51, 50-079 Wroc∏aw71 371-0900/71 [email protected]

WND8,600WND

WND3,354WND

WND5,246WND

WND305.5WND

WNDWNDWNDWND

54%45%1%

2315

113WND

3991999

Supernova IDM Fund - 16.1%;HMS Best Management Idea LTI -

10.3%Prologics UK - 36%

Tomasz HanczarekPresident

3

Adecco Poland Sp. z o.o.Al. Jana Paw∏a II 19, 00-854 Warsaw22 376-0900/22 [email protected]

WND7,2345,613

WND4,7023,929

WND2,5321,684

WND282.0214.0

WNDWNDWNDWND

97%3%-

5,50051

44WND

2381994

NoneAdecco - 100%

Anna WichaGeneral Director

4

Manpower Polska Sp. z o.o.ul. Nowogrodzka 68, 02-014 Warsaw22 504-0715/22 [email protected]

WND7,160WND

WND6,073WND

WND1,087WND

WND287.0WND

2.5%-

97.5%-

90%10%

-

3,90050

87WND

2122001

NoneManpower France Holding - 100%

Iwona Janas

5

Sanpro Job Service Sp. z o.o.ul. Ruska 3/4, 50-079 Wroc∏aw800-190-911/71 [email protected]

7,0004,5003,700

5,9003,6002,900

1,100900800

WNDWNDWND

4%1%95%

-

70%30%

-

1212

1510

1502003

WNDGrzegorz Tyszka

President

6

Trenkwalder (1)

ul. Czerwona 22, 96-100 Skierniewice46 811-3091/46 [email protected]

5,2684,2363,032

WNDWNDWND

WNDWNDWND

180.0147.599.7

0.1%-

99.8%0.1%

90%10%

-

35034

WNDWND

WND2000

NoneTrenkwalder International - 90%;

Jeroen van der Weijde - 10%

Jeroen van der WeijdeManaging Director

7Start People Sp. z o.o.ul. Piotrkowska 111, 90-425 ¸ódê22 661-5902/22 [email protected]

3,6403,762WND

3,3233,472WND

317290

WND

143.9135.0WND

1.3%0.7%98%

-

92.6%6.4%1%

WND27

446

1691997

WNDUSG People

Marek JurkiewiczManaging Director

8

Wadwicz Sp. z o.o.ul. Karczewska 18, 04-112 Warsaw22 345-6601/22 [email protected]

2,1002,3502,000

280750600

1,8201,6001,400

33.040.032.5

15%-

85%-

95%5%-

88

506

WND1992

Jaros∏aw Adamkiewicz - 90%;S∏awomir Adamkiewicz - 10%

None

Jaros∏aw AdamkiewiczPresident

9

Grupa Job - Job Impulse Polska Sp. z o.o.ul. Sielska 8, 60-129 Poznaƒ61 662-3479/61 [email protected]

3,0002,3001,800

2,0002,0001,500

1,000300300

WNDWNDWND

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WNDWNDWND

3015

120WND

602003

WNDMaciej Kozicki

President

10

InterKadra Sp. z o.o.ul. Wielicka 50, 30-552 Kraków12 290-2244/12 [email protected]

1,9321,345761

1,9001,300750

324511

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8%-

92%-

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1111

6262

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Krzysztof Jakubowski - 33%;Marcin Smoroƒ - 33%

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Marcin SmoroƒKrzysztof Jakubowski;

President;Vice President

11

GP People Sp. z o.o., Sp.k.ul. Mickiewicza 83A, 87-100 Toruƒ56 651-0468/56 [email protected]

1,3701,055525

1,100938509

27011716

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-

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WNDNone

Rafa∏ DylaProxy

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Grafton Recruitment Polska Sp. z o.o.ul. Sienna 39, 00-121 Warsaw22 654-4646/22 [email protected]

778694

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661484

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13.511.29.6

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611997

WNDAleksandra Iwicka

Country Manager

13

Hays Poland Sp. z o.o.ul. Z∏ota 59, 00-120 Warsaw22 584-5650/22 [email protected]

17014030

---

17014030

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2557

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NoneHays Specialist Recruitment -

100%

Micha∏ M∏ynarczykManaging Director CEE

14

Stegmann Polska Sp. z o.o. ul. Opolska 1, 40-084 Katowice32 609-0550/32 [email protected]

111110104

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44

152004

WNDAleksandra Knapczyk

Country Manager; Proxy

15

Devonshire Sp. z o.o.Al. Jerozolimskie 56C, 00-803 Warsaw22 820-9360/22 [email protected]

13010065

---

13010065

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NoneDevonshire Recruitment

Holdings - 100%

Daniel ¸upiƒskiGeneral Director

16

CPL Jobs Sp. z o.o.Al. Jerozolimskie 81, 02-001 Warsaw22 488-6500/22 [email protected]

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NoneCPL Resources - 100%

Gracjan GóêdêCountry Manager

2011 (forecast) / 2010 / 2009

Converted to FTE

Page 20: WBJ #41 2012

OCTOBER 15-21, 2012MMAARRKKEETTSS20 www.wbj.pl

SO

UR

CE

: W

SE

PLN-EUR

4.11

38

4.10

20

4.11

15

4.12

02

4.09

33

4.07

66

05.1

0

08.1

0

09.1

0

10.1

0

11.1

0

12.1

04.0

4.5 PLN-USD

05.1

0

08.1

0

09.1

0

10.1

0

11.1

0

12.1

0

3.13

53

3.14

30

3.15

01

3.16

95

3.18

19

3.15

77

3.0

3.5 PLN-GBP

05.1

0

08.1

0

09.1

0

10.1

0

11.1

0

12.1

0

5.07

26

5.05

49

5.04

10

5.07

4 4

5.09

76

5.07

14

5.0

5.5 PLN-CHF

3.36

49

3.36

79

3.36

13

3.36

83

3.39

42

3.38

66

05.1

0

08.1

0

09.1

0

10.1

0

11.1

0

12.1

03.0

3.5 PLN-RUB

05.1

0

08.1

0

09.1

0

10.1

0

11.1

0

12.1

0

0.10

12

0.10

10

0.10

11

0.10

18

0.10

22

0.10

19

0.1

0.11 PLN-100JPY

05.1

0

08.1

0

09.1

0

10.1

0

11.1

0

12.1

0

3.99

71

4.01

79

4.02

04

4.04

78

4.07

63

4.02

51

3.8

4.5

currency rates

PM’s speech

changes little

Currency report

Despite a bare macroeco-nomic calendar this pastweek, it was an interestingtime on the currency markets.Ratings agency Standard &Poor’s lowered Spain’s ratingto BBB- causing more con-cerns and increasing Spanishbond yields.

Moreover, the Greekproblem remains – Europeancountries are willing to sendthe next transfer of financialaid in order to calm marketparticipants, but the IMFmaintains that Greece shouldcome back to the fiscal paththat was agreed on back in thespring. That would meananother debt restructuring,which many European coun-tries do not want to agree to.

The EUR/USD collapsedall the way to just above $1.28despite being quoted above$1.30 at the beginning of theweek. Better-than-expected

news from the US labor mar-ket helped market sentimentand the most liquid currencypair rebounded and againtraded just below the $1.30before the end of the week.

In Poland, investors werewaiting for Prime MinisterDonald Tusk’s policy speech,but no critical informationwas revealed. There was noreaction on the z∏oty market,which was rather stable thispast week but gave up a smallamount of the previousweek’s gains. The EUR/PLNclimbed to z∏.4.09 (fromz∏.4.06) while the USD/PLNfinished the week at z∏.3.15(reaching as high as z∏.3.19during the week).

This week investors willfocus more on macroeconom-ic news from the US and eurozone. Also, the quarterlyearnings reporting season hasbegun in the US. ●

Adam NarczewskiX-Trade Brokers DM SA

SO

UR

CE

: N

BP

Major indices

Top 5 Closing % change (week) 52-week high 52-week low

HBPOLSKA 0.04 100.00 1.47 0.01ALTERCO 1.38 91.67 47.98 0.66ENERGOPLD 0.39 85.71 0.40 0.33BYTOM 0.40 42.86 0.87 0.25ATLANTIS 0.42 35.48 1.21 0.18

WIG 44,224.67 (October 11 close)

Change for the week: 0.88% 52-week high: 44,524.65

Change year to October 11: 15.41% 52-week low: 36,653.28

Top 5 Closing % change (week) 52-week high 52-week low

PZU 382.00 5.38 382.80 290.10PKOBP 37.10 4.21 38.50 30.10KGHM 158.30 3.46 174.20 102.40PBG 6.31 3.27 94.65 3.25GTC 7.80 2.63 12.75 5.13

Bottom 5 Closing % change (week) 52-week high 52-week low

JAGO 0.04 -55.56 0.37 0.03REGNON 0.04 -20.00 0.38 0.04SOLAR 9.00 -17.73 9.14 8.99POLIMEXMS 0.66 -16.46 2.09 0.46INVESTCON 0.85 -15.00 2.25 0.81

Bottom 5 Closing % change (week) 52-week high 52-week low

POLIMEXMS 0.66 -16.46 2.09 0.48ASSECOPOL 40.17 -9.18 55.45 40.12TAURONPE 4.70 -2.69 5.77 4.10PGNIG 3.91 -2.25 4.39 3.61BRE 316.40 -1.56 329.20 233.00

WIG20 2,394.21 (October 11 close)

Change for the week: 1.01% 52-week high: 2,417.32

Change year to October 11: 9.12% 52-week low: 2,035.80

mWIG40 2,394.59 (October 11 close)

Change for the week: 0.87% 52-week high: 2,561.94

Change year to October 11: 9.33% 52-week low: 2,076.52

sWIG80 9,994.63 (October 11 close)

Change for the week: 0.22% 52-week high: 10,536.29

Change year to October 11: 16.16% 52-week low: 8,218.71

NewConnect 34.82 (October 11 close)

Change for the week: 1.69% 52-week high: 43.83

Change year to October 11: -16.08% 52-week low: 33.85

WIG-Banki 6,399.21 (October 11 close)

Change for the week: 1.34% 52-week high: 6,495.06

Change year to October 11: 15.44% 52-week low: 5,163.30

DJIA13,326.39 (Oct 11 close)

-1.83% (for the week)

CHANGE: 7.49%

(year to October 11)

52-week high: 13,661.90

52-week low: 11,231.40

NASDAQ3,049.41 (Oct 11 close)

-3.18% (for the week)

CHANGE: 15.13%

(year to October 11)

52-week high: 3,196.93

52-week low: 2,441.48

S&P5001,432.84 (Oct 11 close)

-1.95% (for the week)

CHANGE: 12.20%

(year to October 11)

52-week high: 1,474.51

52-week low: 1,158.66

FTSE1005,829.80 (Oct 11 close)

0.03% (for the week)

CHANGE: 2.28%

(year to October 11)

52-week high: 5,989.10

52-week low: 5,075.20

DAX7,281.70 (Oct 11 close)

-0.32% (for the week)

CHANGE: 19.85%

(year to October 11)

52-week high: 7,478.53

52-week low: 5,366.50

NIKKEI2258,546.78 (Oct 11 close)

-3.15% (for the week)

CHANGE: -0.16%

(year to October 11)

52-week high: 10,255.20

52-week low: 8,135.79

world stock indices

40,000

41,000

42,000

43,000

44,000

45,000

14.0

9

17.0

9

18.0

9

19.0

9

20.0

9

21.0

9

24.0

9

25.0

9

26.0

9

27.0

9

28.0

9

01.1

0

02.1

0

03.1

0

04.1

0

05.1

0

08.1

0

09.1

0

10.1

0

11.1

0 2,200

2,260

2,320

2,380

2,440

2,50014

.09

17.0

9

18.0

9

19.0

9

20.0

9

21.0

9

24.0

9

25.0

9

26.0

9

27.0

9

28.0

9

01.1

0

02.1

0

03.1

0

04.1

0

05.1

0

08.1

0

09.1

0

10.1

0

11.1

0

2,200

2,250

2,300

2,350

2,400

2,450

14.0

9

17.0

9

18.0

9

19.0

9

20.0

9

21.0

9

24.0

9

25.0

9

26.0

9

27.0

9

28.0

9

01.1

0

02.1

0

03.1

0

04.1

0

05.1

0

08.1

0

09.1

0

10.1

0

11.1

0 9,200

9,400

9,600

9,800

10,000

10,200

14.0

9

17.0

9

18.0

9

19.0

9

20.0

9

21.0

9

24.0

9

25.0

9

26.0

9

27.0

9

28.0

9

01.1

0

02.1

0

03.1

0

04.1

0

05.1

0

08.1

0

09.1

0

10.1

0

11.1

0

33.0

33.6

34.2

34.8

35.4

14.0

9

17.0

9

18.0

9

19.0

9

20.0

9

21.0

9

24.0

9

25.0

9

26.0

9

27.0

9

28.0

9

01.1

0

02.1

0

03.1

0

04.1

0

05.1

0

08.1

0

09.1

0

10.1

0

11.1

0

36.0

5,900

6,020

6,140

6,260

6,380

6,500

14.0

9

17.0

9

18.0

9

19.0

9

20.0

9

21.0

9

24.0

9

25.0

9

26.0

9

27.0

9

28.0

9

01.1

0

02.1

0

03.1

0

04.1

0

05.1

0

08.1

0

09.1

0

10.1

0

11.1

0

Other indices

Weak start,

weak finish

Stocks report

Stocks last week started offwhere they finished the weekbefore, with losses. The War-saw Stock Exchange’s blue-chip WIG20 index performedlast week almost exactly oppo-site to the week prior, shed-ding value on Monday andTuesday, while performingbetter on Wednesday andThursday, though it dippedagain on Friday. Dim growthprospects for the global econ-omy, as well as poor industrialproduction data from Ger-many on Monday, October 8,sent shares down.

Losses continued on Tues-day, October 9, as a slew ofbrokerage downgrades castdoubt over equities. Sharesthroughout Europe were hithard, with the WIG20 losing 1percent, while the overallWIG index shed 0.79 percent.

Wednesday, October 10started off poorly as well,

with all three major indicesin Poland shedding nearlyhalf a percent by noon.Stocks traded sideways upuntil the last hour of trad-ing, with all indices, asidefrom the small-cap sWIG80index, finishing higher forthe day. Thursday, October11 saw little action, withstocks seeing mild fluctua-tions. Despite poor econom-ic data from Japan, as wellas a credit downgrade forSpain by ratings agencyS&P, indices throughoutEurope seemed to brush offthe news. Both the WIG andWIG20 finished flat.

On Friday, October 12,Prime Minister DonaldTusk’s policy speech failedto impress markets, with theWIG and WIG20 both los-ing – they fell by 0.53 per-cent and 0.76 percentrespectively. ●

Andrew NawrockiWBJ market analyst

Page 21: WBJ #41 2012

OCTOBER 15-21, 2012 SSPPOORRTTSS www.wbj.pl 21

Soccer

BB∏∏aasszzcczzyykkoowwsskkii oouutt ooff WWoorrllddCCuupp qquuaalliiffiieerr aaggaaiinnsstt EEnnggllaanndd

The Poland captaininjured his ankle inDortmund’s drawwith Hannover

Jakub B∏aszczykowski has beenruled out of Poland’s WorldCup qualifier with Englandafter picking up an injury dur-ing Borussia Dortmund’s 1-1draw with Hannover 96.

Poland’s inspirational on-field general fell awkwardly inthe 39th minute and despitereceiving treatment, was unable

to continue.After the match, Mr

B∏aszczykowski told reporters,“I shifted my weight on my leftfoot and felt a pain in the anklejoint. I knew immediately that itis not good. There was no way Icontinue to play.”

The injury to Poland’s bestplayer at Euro 2012 is bad newsfor new national team coachWaldemar Fornalik, as the mid-fielder has been in inspiredform this season with threeleague goals in just seven

matches. Fornalik will also bewithout injured Legia Warsza-wa striker Marek Saganowskiwhen his side takes on Englandat the National Stadium in War-saw, on October 16.

However, there was somegood news for Polish fans, asstriker Robert Lewandowskiwas once again on target for theGerman champions, scoring histeam’s only goal to keep Borus-sia fourth in the Bundesligatable.

DDaavviidd IInngghhaamm

The Australian beatScotland’s JamieBurnett in the final

Neil Robertson claimed hisfirst title of the season follow-ing a 4-3 win over Jamie Bur-nett in the final of the GdyniaOpen.

For Mr Robertson it was asecond successive champi-onship victory in Poland fol-lowing his win at last season’s

Warsaw Classic.The world no. 8 looked to

be in cruise control after heracked up a 3-0 lead over MrBurnett, who was looking togain his first-ever professionaltitle. But then the Scot foughtback to level at 3-3, with a topbreak of 64.

The final frame, whichlasted 52 minutes, was decid-ed when Mr Burnett missed ablack off the spot with just

one red remaining, allowingMr Robertson his chance toreturn to the table and gainan unassailable lead.

It proved a costly mistakefor the Glasgow-born 37-year-old as he missed out onthe €12,000 top prize.

Next up for the world’sbest players is the AntwerpOpen, which begins on Octo-ber 18.

DDaavviidd IInngghhaamm

SH

UT

TE

RS

TO

CK

Jakub B∏aszczykowski

Snooker

NNeeiill RRoobbeerrttssoonn wwiinnssGGddyynniiaa OOppeenn

CO

UR

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Neil Robertson

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Page 22: WBJ #41 2012

OCTOBER 15-21, 2012LLIIFFEESSTTYYLLEE22 www.wbj.pl

Steve VaiOctober 28Stodo∏aul. Batorego 10Warsaw

American guitar maestroSteve Vai is in the capital thismonth for a show set to con-tain some extravagant solosand plenty of shredding.

The 52-year-old, wholearned his craft under leg-endary guitar player JoeSatriani, has played withFrank Zappa, David Lee

Roth, Ozzy Osbourne andWhitesnake, among manyother members of rockmusic’s elite, in a 33-yearrecording career.

Apart from his successfulmusical career, Mr Vai isalso known for his role as thedevil in the 1985 movie“Crossroads” which sees himdefeated in a guitar battle byRalph Macchio of “KirateKid” fame.

Speaking about his ownpersonal musical style on his

website, the guitarist said, “Imake music to push my ownbuttons … I’ve always beendriven by an addiction to cre-ate sounds that are unique –not better than what otherpeople do, just different.”

The three-time Grammyaward winner is currentlypromoting his eighth studioalbum, “The Story of Light,”which was released inAugust. Tickets for the eventare priced from z∏.150.

DDaavviidd IInngghhaamm

Concert

GGuuiittaarr hheerroo

Steve Vai

SH

UT

TE

RS

TO

CK

Good VibrationsOctober 23-28Copernicus Science Centreul. Wybrze˝e KoÊ-ciuszkowskie 20, Warsaw

The first-ever temporary inter-active exhibition to open at theCopernicus Science Centreprovides an invitation to travelinto the land of sounds.

The exhibits on display havebeen selected by German musicprofessor Michael Bradke, who

seeks to enable those attendingto understand the mysteriesand the physics behind soundand human hearing.

With the aid of both unusualand simplistic musical instru-ments, visitors will be able tohear sounds from objects thatnormally remain silent, such asice cream sticks or egg slicers,while also being able to find outwhat their “robotic” voicesounds like using the aid of

some sophisticated musicaltechnology.

Entrance to the exhibition isincluded with the price of a tick-et to the museum’s permanentexhibitions. These include thelight zone, roots of civilizationand the planetarium, amongmany other interesting attrac-tions.

DDaavviidd IInngghhaammFor more information log

on to narodowy.pl

“Manon Lescaut”October 23Teatr WielkiPl. TeatralnyWarsaw

“Manon Lescaut,” an opera byGiacomo Puccini, first pre-miered back in 1893 and wasthe famous Italian composers’first show to become a major hitof the day.

Based on the 1731 novel“L’histoire du chevalier desGrieux et de Manon Lescaut,”by French author Abbé Prévost,it is set in the 18th century inboth Paris and New Orleans,

and tells the story of ManonLescaut, her brother, simplyknown as Lescaut, and herlover Chevalier des Grieux.

This adaptation is producedin conjunction with the ThéatreRoyal de La Monnaie in Brus-sels and the Welsh NationalOpera in Cardiff.

It is directed by Mariusz Tre-liƒski and stars Amanda Echa-laz as Manon Lescaut, andMiko∏aj Zalasiƒski as Lescaut.Music is provided by theorchestra of the Polish NationalOpera.

DDaavviidd IInngghhaamm

Exhibition

BBrriinnggiinngg mmuussiicc ttoo lliiffee

Opera

FFrreenncchh lloovvee aaffffaaiirr

For more information logon to narodowy.pl

CO

UR

TE

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F T

EA

TR

WIE

LK

I

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Page 23: WBJ #41 2012

Getting older sucks. This is an empir-ical fact – it has been demonstrated bydiaper-clad scientists who sketchedout the necessary mathematicalproofs between spoonfuls of tapioca.True story.

But anyway, the worst thingabout getting older is the alarmingspeed at which youth vanishes.Ours disappeared faster thana cupcake tossed, grenade-like, into an OvereatersAnonymous meeting.

It seems like itwas just yes-terday thatTecheye wasa strappingparagon ofv i r i l i t y ,w r e s t l i n gbloodthirstyvicunas in thewilds of SouthAmerica. In star-tling contrast, here’swhat we actually didlast Wednesday:babysat a sick child, worea bathrobe for 18 hoursand, come evening, sipped red wineand stuffed cheese-flavored crackersinto our face while reading our new

favorite blog, The Feminist Breeder(“where edgy feminism finds modernmotherhood”).

From man’s man to modern mom,all in a single decade.

We’re being melodra-matic, yes. But

when aman finds

himsel fnoddingin agree-

ment whilereading a

“lactivist mani-festo,” it’s probablytime to have the estro-gen levels checked.

A doctor’s appointment has beenmade, but in the meantime Techeye istrying to butch up with some manly –or at least man-childy – technology,

such as the Attacknids from WowStuff (Combatcreatures.com).

Attacknids are six-legged, 10-inchtall battling robots with destructiblearmor and a choice of three weaponsthat fire up to 30 feet. If you’ve everdreamed of commanding a fearsomearmy of unstoppable, vaguely insec-toid robots, well, you’ll be disappoint-ed. Still, these are about as close asyou’re going to get to that dreamtoday.

Here’s how they work: you sendyour Attacknids up against enemy

units and if one gets hit threetimes, it automatically

shuts down. Accordingto Wow Stuff, theremote control sys-tem’s 2.4 GHz proces-sor will let you battle

with up to 40 robots. Onthe other hand, each

robot costs £70, so you (oryour friends) need a hefty

£2,800 if you want to see a bat-tle that large.

Speaking of expensive fun, let’slook at the HotTug (Hottug.nl), the“world’s first wood-fired hot tubboat.” That’s right – a hot tub and aboat. That’s probably the best prod-uct-combination since Mmmvelopes

brought bacon flavor to the envelope. The HotTug holds around 2,000

liters of water and up to eight people.Or 1,000 liters and four Tongans. Sixvariants are available, ranging from€8,950 for a just-the-hull model to€16,450 for the E-power+ version,which boasts an integrated electricmotor with four batteries and a stain-less steel wood-burning heater thatwarms the water to 38°C. All it reallylacks are a beer cooler and harem.

Last up this week is something alittle less masculine. Ok … it’s a lotless masculine.

Behold, the Swarovski HYLAGST (Hyla-us.com), an irresistiblybejeweled icon of domestic divinity.Or, to put it more plainly, it’s a hybridvacuum cleaner / air purifier that useswater as a filter (GST stands forgeyser separator technology). The sys-tem forces dirty air through a waterbath, trapping the naff stuff andreturning clean air to the environ-

ment. Most importantly, this ultra high-

end version of the HYLA has beenencrusted with 32,000 Swarovski crys-tals by fabulously named Germanfirm “Bling-my-Thing.” Of course allthat shiny comes at a cost: $21,900, tobe precise.

Let’s be honest – a man owning abejeweled vacuum cleaner is probablya man suffering a bad case of testiculusdisappearus. On the other hand, theSwarovski HYLA GST is sure toimpress the ladies, at least a few ofthem, somewhere. And that’s kind ofmanly … right? ●

OCTOBER 15-21, 2012 LLAASSTT WWOORRDD www.wbj.pl 23

Old-age, manhood and bejeweled vacuum cleanersTech Eye

Ever suffered a crisis of manhood? Let us know: [email protected]

Centre forContemporary Art atUjazdowski Castle ul. Jazdów 2www.csw.art.pl

Czarna Gallery ul. Marsza∏kowska 4www.czarnagaleria.art.pl

Galeria 022, DAP, Lufcik ul. Mazowiecka 11awww.owzpap.pl

Galeria 65 ul. Bema 65www.galeria65.com

Galeria Appendix 2ul. Bia∏ostocka 9www.appendix2.com

Galeria Asymetria ul. Nowogrodzka 18awww.asymetria.eu

Galeria Foksal ul. Foksal 1-4www.galeriafoksal.pl

Galeria Milano Rondo Waszyngtona 2Awww.milano.arts.pl

Galeria Schody ul. Nowy Âwiat 39www.galeriaschody.pl

Galeria XX1 Al. Jana Paw∏a II 36www.galeriaxx1.pl

Galeria Zoya ul. Kopernika 32 m.8www.zoya.art.pl

Green Gallery ul. Krzywe Ko∏o 2/4www.greengallery.pl

KatarzynaNapiórkowska Art Galleryul. Âwi´tokrzyska 32, ul. KrakowskiePrzedmieÊcie 42/44and Old Town Square19/21www.napiorkowska.pl

Królikarnia NationalGalleryul. Pu∏awska 113awww.krolikarnia.mnw.art.pl

Le Guern Galleryul. Widok 8, www.leguern.pl

Museum ofIndependenceAleja SolidarnoÊci 62www.muzeumniepodleglosci.art.pl

National Museum inWarsaw Al. Jerozolimskie 3www.mnw.art.pl

Polish National Operaat Teatr WielkiPl. Teatralny 1www.teatrwielki.pl

Pracownia Galeriaul. Emilii Plater 14www.pracowniagaleria.pl

Rempex Art and Auction Houseul. Karowa 31www.rempex.com.pl

Royal CastlePl. Zamkowy 4www.zamek-krolewski.com.pl

Simonis Galleryul. Burakowska 9www.simonisgallery.com

State ArchaeologicalMuseum in Warsawul. D∏uga 52 www.pma.pl

State EthnographicMuseumul. Kredytowa 1www.ethnomuseum.website.pl

Historical Museum of Warsaw Old Town Square 28-42www.mhw.pl

History Meeting House of Warsaw ul. Karowa 20www.dsh.waw.pl

Warsaw Philharmonic ul. Jasna 5www.filharmonia.pl

Warsaw RisingMuseum ul. Grzybowska 79www.1944.pl

Wilanów PalaceMuseum and WilanówPoster Museumul. St Kostki Potockiego10/16www.milanow-palac.plwww.postermuseum.pl

Zachęta National Art GalleryPl. Ma∏achowskiego 3www.zacheta.art.pl

Museums, galleries and venues in Warsaw

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The Attacknid

The HotTug

The Swarovski HYLA GST

To advertise in WBJ’s classifieds section, contactMs Agnieszka Brejwo, at

(+48) 222-577-526 or [email protected]

Page 24: WBJ #41 2012