(Martin Vojta) Unipetrol, the mother company, showed a 1997 net profit of CZK 413 mil., up from a loss of CZK 9 mil. for 1996. Unipetrol will reportedly consolidate 9 subsidiaries, of which 6 are the most important. Of these, Česká rafinérská (refinery) showed a preliminary net income of CZK 2,078 mil. (up from CZK 866 mil. in 1996), Chemopetrol (petrochemicals) showed a net income of CZK 139 mil. (no comparable 1996 data), Kaučuk showed a loss of CZK 943 mil. (no comparable 1996 data), Benzina (fuel retail chain) showed a loss of CZK 60 mil. (down from a net profit of CZK 20 mil. in 1996), K-Petrol showed a loss of CZK 1,031 mil. (no comparable 1996 data), and Torol showed a loss of CZK 195 mil. (down from a loss of CZK 21 mil. in 1996). Preliminary consolidated 1997 results of Unipetrol should be released on March 23. Unipetrol’s consolidated profit cannot be arrived in by simple summing of profits of the above mentioned companies, since there is a lot of related items in their income statements. The only indication for Unipetrol’s 1997 consolidated profit is its announcement of: "pretax profit including minority interests of CZK 2.5 bil.". Considering this sum and adjusting it for minority interest in Česká rafinérská and for taxes, we expect only a mere consolidated 1997 net profit for Unipetrol. In our opinion, it should not exceed a CZK 500 mil. 1997 results of Unipetrol were negatively affected by last year’s crown depreciation and by showing previously hidden losses in its fuel retail chains, mainly K-Petrol. We expect the market to react negatively to the announcement of Unipetrol results and, from the short-term point of view, we recommend to reduce positions in Unipetrol. On the other hand, we welcome an effort of Unipetrol’s management to clear up the holding aggressively, despite the fact it brings temporary losses. We also believe that most of extraordinary losses seen in 1997 will not occur in 1998 again. Therefore, to long-term investors we recommend holding Unipetrol shares.