Poland

Stricken Polish builder PBG is seeking a 200 million zlotys ($60 million) loan from state-controlled industry development agency ARP, its chief executive was quoted as saying on Tuesday, as the company battles to stay in business, Reuters reported. "We will amend our motion to ARP by the end of this week," state agency PAP quoted Wieslaw Rozacki as saying.

Creditors of beleaguered Polish builder Polimex agreed on Wednesday to waive interest on the group's 2.5 billion zlotys ($718 million) debt pile for four months to give it time to restructure debt and improve liquidity, Reuters reported. Polimex is the largest of dozens of construction companies facing financial trouble after a bidding war for contracts to build roads for the Euro 2012 soccer championship Poland co-hosted with Ukraine. The deals they signed gave them razor-thin margins, which were eaten up by the rising cost of materials, leaving the firms carrying a loss on the projects.

Polish builder Polimex, stretched by debt after cut-throat bidding on infrastructure projects for the Euro 2012 soccer tournament, hopes to offload its Energomontaz and Sefako units for at least 200 million zlotys ($58 million), Reuters reported. Chief executive Konrad Jaskola told broadcaster TVN CNBC on Monday the units had been offered to state restructuring agency ARP and other potential bidders. Polimex has 100 million zlotys in bonds maturing in July and a further 195 million due in October. It also has to repay a loan of 150 million zlotys by the end of July.

Polish construction company Polimex is in talks with creditors to extend debt deadlines and, possibly, issue bonds, Reuters reported. Polimex said on Thursday it wanted a four-month delay in repaying some liabilities and would use the time to improve the conditions and terms of its financing. Like many constructions firms, Polimex is facing financial troubles after a bidding war for contracts to build roads ahead of the Euro 2012 soccer championship that Poland co-hosted with Ukraine.

PBG SA (PBG), Poland’s third-largest builder, decided to file for bankruptcy to help reach an agreement with creditors to cut debt by as much as 31 percent, Bloomberg Businessweek reported. PBG, which helped build three out of four stadiums for European soccer championship that kick off in Poland and Ukraine this week, is proposing to honor 69 percent of its debt to creditors owed more than 1 million zloty ($282,700), 80 percent to those owned from 100,000 zloty to 1 million zloty and 100 percent for those owned lesser sums, the company said in a regulatory filing today.

Polish builder PBG has extended a deadline on a debt restructuring deal with its lenders and broadened its scope to include its financing needs over the next year, it said on Monday, Reuters reported. The engineering and construction group is among several Polish builders to run into trouble on infrastructure deals with razor-thin margins in an ambitious road-building programme ahead of the Euro 2012 soccer games Poland will co-host this summer. "The process of negotiations on granting and launching bridge financing by banks has been prolonged," PBG said.

The Polish government has come up with a plan to plug its yawning budget gap by reducing the share of social security contributions it transfers to private pension funds. Poland’s move isn’t nearly as drastic as the measures taken in Hungary, but it met with fierce criticism nonetheless, The Wall Street Journal New Europe blog reported. In Poland, a fixed proportion of workers’ salaries is withheld as contribution to the country’s pension system. Most of that stays with the government and is used to pay out pensions to people already retired.

Poland’s central bank may start increasing interest rates in January as the zloty has lost its power to keep inflation in check, said Adam Glapinski, a member of the Monetary Policy Council, Bloomberg News reported today. The zloty weakened 2.3 percent against the euro in the six weeks through Dec. 22, when the policy makers left the central bank’s benchmark 7-day rate unchanged for the 18th month.

Deutsche Telekom AG and Vivendi SA Wednesday settled a years-long legal battle over Polish mobile-phone operator Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa, or PTC, giving the German company sole ownership and freeing up more cash for Vivendi to spend on buying out minority stakes in its domestic subsidiaries, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Under the settlement, Deutsche Telekom will pay another EUR1.4 billion ($1.9 billion) in total to Vivendi and Polish conglomerate Elektrim SA, which as a result of the payment will exit bankruptcy proceedings, giving Deutsche Tekekom 100% ownership.

General Motors Co. is considering putting more of its own money into the restructuring of its Opel unit in Europe in a bid to win €2.7 billion in state aid from European governments, people familiar with the situation have said, The Wall Street Journal reported. According to these people, who spoke in recent days, GM is open to increasing its share of the funding needed to turn around Adam Opel GmbH, the German-based unit that makes up the bulk of its operations in Europe.