According to Polish daily Puls Biznesu, the Ministry of Finance has accomplished the first part of the tender offer for technical architecture of the e-declarations project. To our surprise there is only one WSE-listed player on the short-list, i.e. ABG Ster-Projekt (38%-owned subsidiary of Prokom). Among ABG Ster-Projekt’s competitors, we find Capgemini and Andersen Business Consulting as the most significant competitors. The Ministry of Finance is now going to ask all six companies for their offers, including prices. The winner should be known by the end of March. As the deadline for the e-declarations project is set for mid-August, in February the Ministry of Finance plans to announce two other tenders in the framework of the e-declarations project: for technical advisory and project management, as well as for creation of an integration platform.
The overall value of the e-taxes project is estimated at some PLN 1.5bn. The e-declaration is the first part of the project (currently on the agenda) and it is to cost PLN 152m with PLN 105m coming from dedicated EU funds. By 2008, the second part, dealing with internet access to tax data, is to be accomplished. The third and final stage of the project should be terminated in 2012 and allow for full communication with the tax office via the internet.
We believe the news could have slightly positive impact on ABG Ster-Projekt’s share price. At the same time, we believe that other companies like Softbank, ComputerLand, ComArch, Comp or SPiN could be interested in participating in further parts of the project.