The Czech cabinet yesterday canceled the current Unipetrol privatization advisor tender. The move follows the government’s attempts to cancel the CEZ privatization advisory tender due to challenges to the tender results and disagreements between the government and the National Property Fund. A new Unipetrol advisory tender proposal should be submitted to the Cabinet in three weeks. While it can be looked on as positive that the Cabinet intends to establish more precise tender guidelines, Unipetrol’s privatization is one of the key drivers of the stock’s performance, and significant delays could hurt the stock. If the news has any effect on the stock today, it will likely be negative.
Separately, Unipetrol released its consolidated QI 2001 CAS figures yesterday. They were of minor importance as the major subsidiaries had already released their results (rather negative mostly due to Ceska Rafinerska’s low profitability). Consolidated sales rose to CZK 17,627 mil (CZK 14,889 mil in QI 2000), but EBIT fell to CZK 530 mil. (CZK 759 mil. in QI 2000). Consolidated net income was almost unchanged at CZK 693.8 mil. (CZK 693.7 mil. in QI 2000), net income excluding minority interest rose to CZK 693.8 mil. (CZK 592 mil. in QI 2000).
(Jiří Soustružník)