Poland

June 2011

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENTS – FDI to Poland amounted to almost 4,5 Bn € in Q1/2011, which equals to 16% growth y-o-y.

NEARSHORING - Poland is witnessing a boom of service centers built by international giants. The number of people employed at such centers is forecasted to rise from the current 40-45 000 to 70 000 in the next few years.

ENERGY – Areva is competing in a tender for nuclear power plant in Poland and has signed a cooperation agreement with Polish construction company Polimex on the construction on the first nuclear of two 3 000 MW nuclear plants.

MACHINERY - Chinese LiuGong Machinery will take over the civil part of Polish steelworks Huta Stalowa Wola (HSW) for over 60 M€ and plans to build an R&D center at the plant.

MACHINERY - Husqvarna opened a 25 M€ plant in Mielec Special Economic Zone.
MINING & MACHINERY - Indian companies are looking for investment targets in Poland especially in mining and machinery sectors.

TELECOM - Owners of mobile operator Polkomtel have decided to announce an auction to sell the company.

BANKING - Goldman Sachs has opened a branch in Warsaw, which it considers to be an important financial centre in Central and Eastern Europe.

TELECOM - TPSA is negotiating with UKE the terms of building an optical fiber network with 3 million lines and another 2 million lines at the request of alternative operators. The investment is to take six years and start no later than 1/2012.

OIL INDUSTRY - Listed fuel company Lotos has seen interest from investors across the world after the company admitted talks with Russian TNK-BP on possible acquisition of Lotos.

LOGISTICS - Both strategic and financial investors from Poland and abroad file offers for Poland's railway cargo transport firm PKP Cargo, the second largest company of the kind in Europe. Bidders are rumored to include Czech railways’ unit ED Cargo and Penta Investments and Bridgepoint private equity funds.

FOOD INDUSTRY - McCormick is among the companies interested in taking over Kamis, the Polish producer of spices, with value of the transaction potentially reaching 60 M€.

FOOD INDUSTRY - French Le Duff plans to open 30 Brioche Doree cafes in Poland by the end of 2012. Launching of one cafe costs 0,25- 0,3 M€.

PHARMACY - Tamro is looking to sell by the end of 2011 its daughter company Phoenix Pharma Polska which had a 375 M€ turnover in 2010.

ENERGY - Private equity fund Penta Investments, which seeks over 100 M€ investments, made an offer on the Warsawbased heat distributor SPEC and is interested in the Polish assets of Vattenfall.

ENERGY - China National Electric Equipment Corporation-Covec and Shanghai Electric Group want to plow over 4 Bn € into building coalfuelled units in Polish power plants.

March 2011

GDP DEVELOPMENT - Polish GDP growth is forecasted to be 4,2% in 2011, partly thanks to the flexible exchange rate, which is also why converting to the euro does not seem appealing to Warsaw at the moment.

INFLATION – Polish inflation is expected to be 3,2% in 2011.

UNEMPLOYMENT - Polish unemployment is expected to be 10.5% at the year end.
TELECOM - TeliaSonera is interested in buying Polish mobile operator Polkomtel with an estimated price tag of 3,4 Bn €.

PRIVATIZATION - The national sugar producer Krajowa Spółka Cukrowa (KSC) with 3,75 Bn € turnover and 12,5% net profit margin will be privatized this year.

PRIVATIZATION – LOT, the Polish airlines, is seeking an investor. The privatization process, where the state would retain a 51% stake, will be launched in H2/2011. LOT posted a 40 M€ EBIT loss in 2010 and will likely close 2011 also with an 15 M€ EBIT loss.

ENERGY - Hungarian energy company E-Star plans to invest 90 M€ by 2015 into local heating plants.

CHEMICAL INDUSTRY - Japanese Bridgestone Diversified Products Poland will by 2013 invest 30 M€ in a 70 employee ethylene vinyl acetate plant. By 2014 the company intends to invest another 105 M€ in the expansion of its plant in Poznan and recruit 200 new employees.

CONSUMER GOODS - Procter & Gamble (P&G) will invest 25 M€ to start production of baby care tissues in its plant producing diapers at the Łódź Special Economic Zone.

FURNITURE – IKEA owned Swedwood will invest 10-15 M€ in the expansion of its manufacturing facility in Lubawa employing 1 500 people. Swedspan, another IKEA subsidiary, is currently building a 140 M€ plant in Bielsk Podlaski that will produce ultra-thin HDF panels and employ 250 people.

AUTOMOTIVES – Japanese car Windows producer Pilkington Automotive will invest 9 M€ in a new plant. Another 25 M€ will be spent by a real estate developer cooperating with Pilkington.

AUTOMOTIVES - Faurecia, manufacturer of automotive parts, plans to invest 10 M€ in expanding its manufacturing complex in Gorzow. The new facility will produce parts for the new VW Golf VII, whose production is scheduled to begin in 2012. Earlier the French firm announced another 10 M€ project in Gorzow to enlarge its plant making dashboards and door panels. To date Faurecia has eight manufacturing plants and a R&D centre at four locations in Poland and employs nearly 5 500 people.

CHEMICALS INDUSTRY - Police Chemicals is seeking an investor and Anwil and ZA Pulawy are identified as possible buyers as well as unnamed company from the Mediterranean countries. Police is also talking with Polish gas giant PGNiG about the possibility of paying off its roughly 25 M€ debt with its shares.

December 2010

GDP DEVELOPMENT – Polish economy is estimated to have grown 3,8% in 2010, with an annual inflation of 2,6%. Growth in 2015-2020 is expected continue at 3.4% and at 3% in 2021-2030.

REAL ESTATE – The sales on the commercial property market nearly quadrupled during 1-9/2010 to 1,45 Bn€.

EURO - Poland stands chances of adopting the euro in 2015, assuming current macroeconomic conditions hold.

ENERGY - GE Oil & Gas, one of the world’s major suppliers of power generation and energy delivery technologies, opened a new subsea equipment testing facility in Warsaw, in partnership with the Warsaw Institute of Aviation and Engineering Design Center.

ENERGY – Vattenfall’s change in strategy has resulted it to decide to withdraw from constructing a power plant with listed chemical firm Pulawy. Pulawy and Vattenfall signed an agreement concerning the conditions of building a joint power or heat-and-power plant of 1400 MW in the beginning of the year.

ENERGY - Fortum will invest 300-400 M€ into its second heating and power plant in Wroclaw. The plant will be ready by 2015.

AVIATION - Honeywell, an American aerospace manufacturer, may open two production plants in Poland with the help of EU subsidies. In order to qualify for the EU funds Honeywell would have to create at least 150 jobs and invest minimum 40 M€ in each of the facilities.

IT - IBM opened an IT service center in Wroclaw. The new facility will specialize in outsourcing IT services and employ roughly 2 000 people.

IT - Listed IT firms Asseco Poland, Sygnity and Comarch are facing competition from a Russian software maker Luxoft, which is opening an R&D center in Krakow. The company will offer software solutions to large firms, especially from the automotive, tourist and financial sectors.

AUTOMOTIVES - TWR, American automotive subcontractor, is considering to invest 45 M€ into a 200 employee plant in Gliwice.

RETAIL - Tesco plans to spend over 0,1 Bn€ on opening some 100 stores in during FY 2011.

MEDIA - Nasza Klasa, Poland's largest social networking portal, was put up for sale for 130 M€. Nasza Klasa is 73% owned by a Cyprus-registered company Excolimp. The remaining 27% of shares are in the hands of the portal's founder Maciej Popowicz.

MEDIA - Liberty Global will acquire Polish cable TV operator Aster from Mid Europa Partners for 217 M€ in cash and assumed 380 M€ in net debt. FOOD

INDUSTRY - Twinings, the British tea manufacturer, will use 12 M€ of EU grants to relocate part of its operation to Poland. The company plans to invest 43 M€ in a production plant in Swarzędz while closing its factory in North Shields

September 2010

GDP GROWTH - The IMF expects the Polish economy is likely to grow 3.1% this year and 3.5% next year. During Q1/2010 GDP growth was 3% and during Q2/2010 3.5%.

EURO - Poland should enter the euro zone between 2014 and 2016, but meeting convergence criteria should be accompanied by public finance reform whose implementation will start from 2011 budget.

FOREIGN INVESTMENTS - Foreign investors will be coming back to the Polish commercial real estate market soon. The value of transactions on this market reached nearly 900M€ in 1-5/2010, being 30% higher y-o-y.

IT - Intel will increase the size of its Gdansk-based remote computer diagnostics systems R&D center by from 500 to 550 employees becoming one of the largest such centers in Poland.

IT - LG Electronics has picked Kobierzyce over London as the site for its first European R&D center. The facility should be fully operational within five years and its role will be to adapt LG's products to the European market. The center is expected to employ around 300 researchers and engineers.

AUTOMOTIVES - The Fiat Powertrain Technologies company in Bielsko-Biala, southern Poland, has launched the production of 0.9-litre engines for Fiat's 500 model. The start of serial production of the new petrol engine was possible after an investment of about 300M€, in addition to a significant contribution from the Polish government.

TELECOM - Polish state-owned railway group PKP will sell its telecom operator Telekomunikacja Kolejowa (TK), whose worth is estimated at 68M€

June 2010

RETAIL - Home products maker and retailer Ikea wants to have its own consumer finance bank, Ikano Bank GmbH, in Poland as the company filed an adequate motion to the financial market regulator KNF. Currently Ikea cooperates with Alior Bank.

FOOD & BEVERAGES INDUSTRY - Poland's largest state-held vodka producers Polmos Bielsko-Biala and Polmos Bialystok will soon be put up for sale again. The new valuation of the companies will be ready in mid-April. According to unofficial estimates each of the companies is worth 6M€. The Treasury Ministry tried to find an investor for both companies twice in 2009, but the only offer delivered by liquor wholesaler Alti Plus was rejected as not fulfilling formal demands.

AUTOMOTIVE - Italian automotive parts producer Brembo will invest 71M€ in building a new production line for its factory located in the town of Dabrowa Gornicza.

GLASS INDUSTRY - Austrian glass producer Stolzle will build a new furnace and new glass production lines in Polish special economic zone near the city of Katowice, spending some 44M€ by 2011 and creating 120 jobs. Stolzle is on the lookout for Polish partners to realize the project, i.a. construction firms.

RETAIL - Listed book and media store Empik has potential to open 900 new stores within five years, plans 35M€ capex in 2010.

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENTS - Japan tires producer Bridgestone will build up its plant in the Polish city of Poznan for 105M€ , aiming at raising the plant's output capacity to 29.2k tires a day in 2014 from the present value of 23.6k tires a day. The plant's larger output capacity will translate into increasing its crew by some 200 persons to 1600.

MANUFACTURING - Swedish furniture producer Ikea eyes investing 1-1,5B€ in Poland over the next five years, including not only stores but also production plants, while it will abstain from entering the WSE.

ENERGY SECTOR - The biggest European factory of solar energy collectors is being constructed in Sosnowiec, south of Poland.The investor is Watt company. The factory will have 25 394m2. and will manufacture 300 000 of solar collectors per year.

EXPORT-IMPORT - Poland's export grew by 20.1% y/y in February, while imports jumped by 22.3% y/y in the same month, which shows that the crisis in Polish foreign trade belongs to history. The high growth of imports is a signal that Polish entrepreneurs are gradually restocking due to an increase of new orders from the eurozone countries.

CHEMICALS - Danish Hempel Manufacturing has opened paint factory in Niepruszew, Buk commune Poland. It is world's most modern factory of this kind constructed in 9 months time only. The production capacity is 40 mln litres of paints with possible increase up to 60 mln litres. Due to the modern ventilation system the factory has minimal environmental influence.

PAPER INDUSTRY - NYSE-listed paper manufacturer Schweitzer-Maduit International will invest nearly 26M€ in a new tobacco paper producing plant and thus create 100 new jobs in the special economic zone near the Polish city of Lodz. German appliances producer Bosch Siemens Haugerate will invest 2M€ in its Lodz-based plant, with views for further investment in the future.

ATTRACTIVENESS INDEX - Poland is among five most attractive European countries in terms of real estate investment, having jumped from a far-away position recorded last year.

INVESTMENTS - The authorities of Poland's capital city of Warsaw plan to spend 1B€ on investments in the city, which is a record sum for all Polish cities ever. Warsaw's investment until 2014 will likely 2B€, approximately.

GDP FORECASTS - Poland's GDP growth will reach 3.1% in 2010 and 3.9% in 2011, inflation in the respective years is expected at 2.7% and 2.8%.

FOOD INDUSTRY - Fast-food chain McDonald's could spend as much as 30M€ in Poland in 2010 as the firm will open no fewer than 17 locations this year to maintain the pace from last year. McDonald's, which has 239 restaurants already open in Poland, has an average cost of 1M€ for each opening. Revenues in 2009 rose 8.8% to 285M€ and the growth rate could yet increase for 2009, depending on a number of unnamed factors.

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENTS - Foreign direct investments inflow to Poland reached 3,5B€ in Q1 and included 60 greenfield projects. The sum represents some 40% of FDI inflow from 2009 and is 2.5 times higher than in the year-prior period.

TELECOM - Listed power group PGE considers the sale of mobile operator Polkomtel possible in 2010. Fuel group PKN Orlen, together with other shareholders of mobile operator Polkomtel, will want to offer a 75.5% stake in the operator to an investor.

AUTOMOTIVE - Automotive group Delphi is mulling opening a production plant in the Polish town of Błonie near Warsaw, willing to invest nearly 50M€ and employ 260 people.

INVESTMENTS - PAIiIZ wants to lure investors with a 0,7M€ grant, a solution supported by the Economy Ministry but still requires governmental consent.

INVESTMENTS & FINANCE - Investment fund Innova Capital, the owner of i.a. financial advisory chain Expander and telco GTS, has got some 0,3M€ for spending on acquisitions. Innova Capital plans to invest in some 10 companies first of all in Poland, but also in Slovakia, Czech Republic and Romania. The fund is interested in companies worth 20-150M€ and is willing to invest 20-50M€ per company.

BANKING SECTOR - Global investment bank Citigroup will open a bureau in Poland. Citygroup's move follows similar ones from Goldman Sachs, Raiffeisen Bank, and the planned return of Credit Suisse, whose brokerage business was sold to BZWBK in 2003.

INVESTMENTS - French-owned company Dalkia will build two boilers entirely dedicated to burning biomass at its cogenerational plants in Łódź and Poznań, in an investment worth 70M€. Together the boilers will process some 600,000 tonnes of biomass as of the end of 2011. Dalkia projects that by 2012 the new boilers will raise the levels of electricity from renewable sources in the plants from the current three to five percent to as much as 18%.

TELECOM - Korean telecommunication giants Korea Telecom and SK Telecom are looking for partners among Polish mobile phone operators, as two Polish telecoms are ready to sell.
Korea Telecom, South Korea’s top telephone and internet operator, is soon to start talks on acquisition or a joint venture with a telecommunications operator. SK Telecom, the country’s largest mobile-phone company, is said to be interested in entering the market as an operator or provide technology for a Polish partner.

CONSTRUCTION - Italian meat manufacturer Bresaole Pini entered the Polish market with opening of a slaughterhouse in Kutno, which the company describes as “the largest in Eastern Europe. Construction of the plant, which will employ about 600 people, has cost around 30M€. It will process between 60,000 and 80,000 pigs a week.

March 2010

ECONOMIC GROWTH - World Bank expects GDP growth to be 2,2% in 2010 and 3,4% in 2011. The pace is faster than in other countries in the region mainly thanks to Poland's competitiveness, comparatively strong banking sector and large domestic market.

CAR SALES – New passenger car registrations in Jan-February 2010 decreased y-o-y by 13%.

FOOD INDUSTRY - M&A activity in food industry is expected to be twice as high as last year. Companies are expected to enter new segments – e.g. food processor Maspex is mulling the takeover of chocolate firm Wedel, coffee firm Mokate eyes opportunities in Central and Eastern Europe while canned-food maker Pamapol and confectionery firm Jutrzenka, are interested mainly in domestic acquisitions.

AVIATION - Państwowe Porty Lotnicze, the owner of Warsaw's Okęcie airport, will spend some
300 M€ in infrastructure investments to raise the airport's capacity to 52 operations per hour from the current 36 by 2013.

AUTOMOTIVES - Rolls-Royce is in talks with Polish companies to open its dealership and service in Poland this year with Warsaw-based Auto Fus being the most likely candidate.

FOOD INDUSTY – After acquiring Cadbury, Kraft Foods announced that it will close down Cadbury’s Somerdale factory employing 400 workers in UK and move the production to Poland. During the years Cadbury has invested around 200 M€ in Poland to build a chocolate factory in Kobierzyce, to buy the leading chocolate brand Wedel (which it now has to sell due to competition authorities) and in 2006 the company set up a chewing gum factory.

MACHINERY INDUSTRY - Mining machinery company Kopex purchased a 27% stake in machinery producer Rybnicka Fabryka Maszyn Ryfama and eyes acquiring a further 38% stake after receiving approval from competition authorities. Kopex is also competing with three other companies to acquire the privatization of the mining equipment producer Remag.

PAPER INDUSTRY - American Weyerhaeuser, one of the largest timber processing companies in the world, start building a 17 000 m2 cellulose processing plant mainly for hygiene products in the Gdańsk port in the spring of 2010 and complete it in 2012. This will be the first Weyerhaeuser facility to produce cellulose outside North America. The new facility will provide jobs for at least 45 people.

ELECTRONICS - Japan-based high-tech group Hitachi wants to extend its presence in Poland by investing in Polish industry sectors of energy, IT, railway, and construction machinery. The group wants to enter tenders for supplying elements to coal power plants in the Polish towns of Kozienice, Turowo and Jaworzno in 2010, and does not exclude its participation in the construction of Poland's first nuclear power plant.

WHITE GOODS - Polish domestic appliances producer Amica will sell another two of its plants in the Polish town of Wronki to the Korean consumer electronics group Samsung by end of March. The planned sale follows a similar move several months ago, when Amica sold to Samsung two of its unprofitable plants for 62 M€.

ELECTRONICS - Korean electronic home appliances maker LG will spend 11,6 M€ on three new assembly lines in its Polish plant to produce LED and 3D TVs.

PHARMACEUTICALS - GlaxoSmithKline will invest 18 M€ to move the production of one of its best-selling drugs into Poznan. Earlier Sanofi-Aventis announced that it will invest 4,1 M€ on its plant in the Rzeszow in 2010, while Teva may invest another 2,5 M€ on its plants in the cities of Krakow and Kutno this year.

PHARMACEUTICALS - Pharmaceutical group Roche's Polish unit will build a 100 person research and development centre in Poznan – a project for which the company will receive
0,3 M€ in EU subsidies during years 2010-11.

POWER TOOLS – Swedish Husqvarna plans to build a 26 M€ production facility in Mielec, southeastern Poland to manufacture self-propelled mowers and gardening equipment. The new unit is scheduled to come on stream by end 2010 and employ around 100 workers.

PACKAGING INDUSTRY - Flint Group, a solutions provider to the packaging and print media industries, acquired Torda, a manufacturer of printing inks for the packaging markets in Northern Europe, the Balkans and the Middle East with a substantial presence in Eastern Europe. Torda generated revenues of approximately
23 M€ in 2009.

PUBLISHING - Platforma Mediowa Point Group (PMPG) has bought 80 % of AWR Wprost for 2,1 M€, the publisher of titles such as weekly Wprost, monthly Mój Pies and owner of a number of websites.

CONSULTING - McKinsey & Company is opening a new Knowledge Research and Development Center in the southwestern city of Wrocław, which will employ up to 100 persons. The center is the fourth of its kind in a global chain of McKinsey Knowledge Centers.

January 2010

GDP DEVELOPMENT - In Q3/2009 Polish GDP grew 1,7% y-o-y much thanks to consumer spending, which has, as one of very few, steered Poland clear of recession. In general the Polish economy is expected to gradually recover during 2010 and reach a normal state growthwise in 2011.

SALARIES & UNEMPLOYMENT - Poland's average monthly wage grew 4.8% y-o-y to 763 € in Q3/2009, while at the same time unemployment was 11,1%.

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENTS - In the Global Venture Capital and Private Equity Country Attractiveness Index Poland jumped from 41st in 2006 to 31st.

EURO - Poland will not adopt Euro before 2014. According to a recent government report the nation’s interest rates are in line with adoption criteria, as budget deficit keeps the country from joining the currency union.

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENTS - The Council of Ministers has by the end of 2009 to approve financing for eleven investments in special economic zones, worth in total 200 M€ and which are to create 3 000 jobs. Two projects pertain to aviation sector, another two to automotive industry, including Ford Ka production in Tychy.

AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY - During 1-3Q/2009 1,7% more new cars were sold in Poland than in the same period last year.

CLEAN TECH - Mining Institute in Katowice and Institute of Chemical Coal Processing in Zabrze has begun the construction of Center of Clean Coal Technologies. The investment valued 40 M€ will be considerably financed by European Regional Funds.

CLEAN TECH - Polish fuel group Lotos's subsidiary Lotos Jaslo got the greenlight from anti-monopoly body UOKiK for creating a joint company with Finnish oil recycling company EcoStream Oy. The Polish-Finnish company is to build a plant for recycling used oil-products, which will start operating in H2/2011. The construction cost of nearly 30 M€ will be covered by the Finns, while Lotos willcontribute some 70 000 m2 of grounds and refinery installations; additionally the two companies will assign some 6 M€ for launching the production.

CLEAN TECH - The Bełchatów power plant, a member of Polska Grupa Energetyczna, will obtain a subsidy of 180 M€ to build a carbon capture and storage (CCS) installation.

GAS INDUSTRY - Technical gas producer Messer is opening a new production plant worth over 30 M€ in Rybnik special economic zone.

ELECTRONICS - Kimball Electronics Poland opened a new 21 M€, 6 000 m2 plant. The plant will manufacture electronics for the automotive industry and glucose meters for diabetics. It will have a work force of around 400.

PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY - German drug store chain Rossmann will spend 32 M€ on investments in Poland this year, to add 80 new outlets to its current network of 400 stores in Poland.

ENERGY - Finnish energy group Fortum is interested in taking part in the privatization of Polish energy group Energa. Fortum is weighing the cooperation with Energa in the 600 M€ project of building hydroelectric power plant on the Vistula river.

AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY - Car producer Opel's Polish plant in Gliwice started producing Opel's new model, Astra IV. Thanks to the new Astra the situation of the Gliwice plant will be stable, which might produce 180 000 Astra’s in 2010.

POWER TOOLS - Swedish Outdoor Power Equipment producer Husqvarna plans to create 800 new workplaces by opening new production plants in Poland and China this year.

AVIATION - WSK PZL Rzeszow, A unit of United Technologies, will set up a research and development centre costing 43 M€, which will be financed through Eastern Poland Development programm.

BANKING - Credit Suisse, the largest private bank in the world, is set to open its first branch in Poland.

IT - Global IT giant IBM will launch its IT services centre (for European clients) in Wroclaw in Spring 2010, giving jobs to some 2 000 persons. The centre's construction will consume 21 M€ from EU funds and 8 M€ from Poland's internal budget.

September 2009

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENTS – Poland was ranked 11th most interesting target country for FDI globally. This is the highest rank among EU countries and second best after Russia, which was ranked 5th, in Central and Eastern Europe.

FURNITURE INDUSTRY – Ikea is continuing its eight year, 1.5 bn€ investment program consisting of furniture production, shopping centres and Ikea stores in Poland. The most recent announcements have come from two Ikea doughter companies Swedspan and Swedwood. The former will invest 300 M€ into a HDF panel factory in Bialystok and Swedwood will build an expansion to its already 55 000 m2 complex in Wielbark. ALltogether IKEA has 13th plants in Poland.

ICT – IBM has decided to set up a 3 000 engineer, programmers and IT specialists strong IT service centre in Wroclaw, which beat in the final selection Katowice, Cairo and Bucharest. In Krakow IBM already employs over 1 600 people it also has plans to set up a Regional Centre of Competences and Implementation in Gdansk.

ICT – DELL gains 55 M€ subsidy from EU funds when it moves its computer assembly plant from Ireland to Lodz. The new plant will employ up to 3000 people.

FOOD INDUSTRY – Pfeiffer & Langen will acquire Poland’s fourth largest sugar producer Cukrownia Glinojeck from British Sugar Overseas. The deal is estimated to be worth 130 M€ and as a result Pfeiffer & Langen will control 27% of the Polish sugar production capacity.

ENERGY – German RWE teams up with Polish coal company Kompania Weglowa to 1,5 bn € into building a 800 MW coal power plant in Upper Silesia. RWE also plans to invest 0,5 bn€ into 300 MW wind energy production.

ENERGY – Kopex, a mining equipment manufacturer, plans to build 30 biogas power plants across Poland. Budget per plant is approximately 5 M€.

ENERGY - The Spanish chemical group Sniace has received a subsidy of 26.5 M€ for the 200 M€ bioethanol plant, to be located in Kostrzyn. The plant will have an annual production capacity of 200 000 metric tons of bioethanol.

FOOD INDUSTRY - South African Bidvest announced acquisition of two large food distributors: Polish Farutex and Czech Nowaco from a fund at 250 M€.

AVIATION - AugustaWestland acquired helicopter manufacturer PZL Swidnik for 76 M€ in a privatization process.

FIBERGLASS - LM Glassfiber, Dannish fiberglass manufacturer, plans to invest up to 140 M€ in Poland into three production halls and potentially a training centre.

MACHINERY INDUSTRY – Cargotec has started construction of a 64 M€ assembly plant for cargo handling equipment in Stargard Szczecinski.

MACHINERY INDUSTRY – ABB has opened its 14 M€ factory producing electrical engines in Łódz Special Economic Zone. The factory will employ 150 people.

FOOD INDUSTRY – The crisis has not effected Cadbury’s plans to invest 200 M€ into extension of its chocolate factory in Skarbimierz. The first stages of the extension will be opened Q1/2010 and full capacity will be reached a year later.

COSMETICS INDUSTRY - Procter & Gamble will launch a 50 M$ factory for skin care products in September. The new factory will be P&G’s third plant in Poland and also the largest skincare plant the company has in Europe.

CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS – Lafarge will invest 115 M€ into expansion of its cement plant and create 625 jobs.

CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS – Belgian owned Euronit, one of Poland’s largest manufacturers of concrete roofing tiles, has opened its second factory worth 15 M€.

CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS – Lampre, Italian metals company, will invest 23 M€ into a plant producing coated metals to white goods producers in Kutno. The plant will be opened in 2012.

PAINTS – Danish Hempel will invest 25 M€ into a 18 000 m2 paint factory in Wilkopolska. The factory is to be opened in March 2010.

ELECTRONICS - Kimball International, producer of automotive electronics, will invests 21 M€ into a new plant in Poland.

AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY – Keiper, German car seats manufacturer, opens its second plant in in Poland. The 19 000 m2 plant in Skarbimierz, company’s second factory in Poland, is expected to employ roughly 800 people by 2014.

PLASTICS – Japanese Fuji Seal International will build a 40 M€ plant in Lodz special economic zone. Later the company might invest an additional 20 M€ and to increase the number of employees from 150 to 250.

June 2009

GDP DEVELOPMENT – Poland’s GDP grew 0,8% y-o-y Q1/09 being second fastest in EU (#1 was Cyprus). One of the main reasons behind the continued growth is the strong domestic market; exports make up about 40% of GDP in Poland, compared with 60% in Lithuania and more than 76% in the Czech Republic.

CONSTRUCTION – A 170 M€, 40 000 seat stadium will be built in Wrocław, south-western Poland by a consortium of Polish (Mostostal Warszawa), Spanish (Acciona) and Greek (J&P Avax) companies. The stadium will be used for the 2012 UEFA championship which Poland is co-hosting with Ukraine.

LOCOMOTIVES - Fiat Powertrain Technologies (FTP) secures over 22 M€ EU subsidy, which will cover around 15% of costs related to its planned investment in its Bielsko-Biała production plant. FPT plans to spend around 180 M€ on launching a new production line of petrol engines.

ENERGY - Poland will invest 1.1 bn € in renewables to meet the target under the European Union's strategy to combat global warming. Poland is committed to securing 15% from renewables by 2020. At present, renewables account for some 7% of power production in Poland.

RETAIL – IKEA Centre Polska will start construction of a 175 M€ shopping complex in Poznan this fall. The project's first stage is to open in the fall of 2011. The centre will be located next to existing IKEA store and have a combined surface area of 70 000 m2. Half of the space is already leased to tenants such as Alma, Decathlon, Rossmann, RTV Euro AGD, Reserved, House and Mohito.

GLASS – US based Guardian Industries which is a manufacturer of glass, automotive and building products will invest 19.3 M€ to the Walbrzych Special Economic Zone creating 160 jobs.

March 2009

GDP - Poland (being a relatively closed economy) remains one of the few countries with the potential to avoid a recession in 2009. Fitch forecasts the economy to grow 1,2% during 2009.

RESTAURANTS - Italy's Autogrill has formed a joint venture with Polish Impel Group with the aim of opening 11 food and beverage locations on the country's main motorways by 2010. Each outlet is expected to have a bit over 1 M€ annual turnover by 2011.

ENERGY – The recurring Russia-Ukraine gas disputes have pushed Poland to decide on building of two nuclear power plants, with first to be opened by 2020 and to speed up the build up of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in the Swinoujscie port.

AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY - car production is expected to fall to 830 000 units in 2009 from 990 000 the year before.

AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY – BorgWarner, a U.S.-based car parts maker, opened new 5 M$ factory for diesel turbochargers in southeast Poland, slated to take on 100 employees.

HOME IMPROVEMENT - Kingfisher, the British home improvement group, sees Poland as a key investment target and it is expecting to double the size of its business in Poland in the next five years. The aim is to increase the number of outlets from 48 to 100. The company believes that the million migrants who are expected to return to Poland will fuel demand for home improvement.

FURNITURE INDUSTRY – Ikea is planning to build a wooden board factory employing 2 000 people. Ikea already has 14 factories in Poland and during the next 8 years Ikea estimates to invest 1,3 bn€ in the country.

FOOD INDUSTRY - Cadbury opened last week its fourth plant in Poland, which produces Trident chewing gum and other products for export. The nearly 260 M€ invested in 2008 made Cadbury the largest foreign investor to Poland last year. By 2010 Cadbury is planning to open a chocolate factory which will cost 250 M€.

December 2008

ECONOMY - Polish economic situation is stable enough for the 2009 budget not needing to be revised. The macro assumptions for 2009 are: 4.8% GDP growth and 2.9% annual inflation (3.5% y-o-y in Dec. 2008).

INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION - Industrial production increased by just 0.2% y-o-y, being below the 2% forecast. Metallurgic and automotive industries, with drops of 23% and 10% have been the worst hit.

INFRASTRUCTURE - A consortium of twelve Chinese companies has been formed to target big, EU funded contracts such as road, railroad, stadiums and energy projects.

EMPLOYMENT - 73.5% of Polish companies are making a profit compared to 77.8% a year ago. Large companies are not immune to the development as they have announced mass redundancies of 7 500 people, 5 500 of them being from stock-listed enterprises. The biggest reductions are in the glass sector with Glass Mill KHS planning to terminate 1 200 jobs.

INVESTMENTS - Corporate investment outlays (among firms employing over 50 people) grew 7.9% y-o-y after three quarters of 2008. Investments in fixed assets grew by 7.9% y-o-y while investments in construction and building grew by 9.9% y-o-y. In industry, investment outlays grew by 10.9% year on year.

REAL ESTATE - 30% of the land in Warsaw is classified as agricultural land. As of January, much of this land will lose that designation and be classified as commercial, residential, etc. land. Real estate developers say this will cause land prices to fall as supply will be larger. It also means that property taxes will be higher than for agricultural land.

PACKAGING - Walki Group, Finnish producer of protective packaging materials and technical laminates, acquired Polish Ekopak-Jatne S.A., which in 2007 had a turnover of 30 M EUR and employed 270 people.

OUTSOURCING - IBM gears up to launch a new R&D facility in Gdansk by the end of 2008. The center is expected to create 100 jobs for IT consultants. Earlier this year IBM has already launched an R&D centre in Warsaw, which employs some 70 persons.

FOOD PRODUCTION - Cadbury plans to invest 250 M EUR and employ 750 persons expand its factories in Skarbimierz and Bielany Wroclawskie. The Polish governement supported the project with a 3.6 M EUR grant.

ENERGY - Vattenfall invested 400 M EUR to increase its shareholding to 18.7% in soon to be listed energy group Enea.

ENERGY - Fuel transit firm OLPP plans to build a fuel pipeline capable of importing 2 mln tons of fuel annually from Belarus.The company plans to complete the construction in 2011. The pipeline will be financed with company's own funds.

ENERGY - Stora Enso has embarked on the construction of a new 137 M EUR power plant at the Ostroleka mill site in Poland. The power plant project is set to reach completion in Q3 2010, further improving the cost competitiveness of Stora Enso's Polish operations.

RETAIL - Tesco wants its Polish partners to reduce prices by 5-20% due to the financial crisis, decreasing prices of milk, grain, oil, fruit and vegetables and aggressive pricing policies by discount shops like Lidl and Biedronka.

FOREIGN INVESTMENTS - Danish Kongskilde, manufacturer of soil preparation and grain handling equipment for the agri sector, invests 10M EUR in Kutno, 120 km West of its Warsaw plant. The plan is to add 6 000- 7 000 m2 to the existing 12.000 m2 facility, which was constructed in 2003.

October 2008

FOREIGN INVESTMENTS - According to an investment attractiveness survey by Ernst & Young, Poland is considered as the most promising country in Europe, ahead of e.g. Germany and Russia.

ECONOMY - Polish economy is on track for 4,5% Q3 GDP growth. The global slowdown is expected to start to effecting in the coming quarters.

CORRUPTION - Poland ranked 58th in an index of the most corrupt countries in the world prepared by Transparency International, sharing the spot with Lithuania and Turkey.

BANKRUPTCIES - Number of bankruptcies has during 1-9/2008 was 10% lower than for the same period a year ago. However, the rate of decline is slowing and more companies are having difficulties paying liabilities on time.

CONSTRUCTION - Construction companies recorded a 25% increase in revenues during the first six months of the year as compared to the same period of 2007.

ENERGY - Tauron, second biggest power generator in Poland, and chemicals firm ZA Kedzierzyn want to jointly build a 900 M EUR polygeneration power plant based on coal gassification that would produce electricity, heat and gas necessary for chemical production.

ENERGY - RWE, a German power engineering company, plans to invest 1.5 Bn EUR in the construction of a 800 MW coal-fired power plant in Silesia. The plant is expected to be completed in 2015.

STEEL PRODUCTION - ArcelorMittal, the world?s largest steel producer, will invest over 0.56 Bn EUR into its Polish subsidiary ArcelorMittal Poland.

PLASTICS - PKN Orlen, Poland's largest fuel company, will invest 1.1 Bn EUR to the construction of a purified teraphthalic acid (PTA) plant in Wloclawek, central Poland. The construction works are expected to be completed by late 2010.

August 2008

FDI - Ernst & Young European Attractiveness Survey 2008 ranked Poland as the top European location for FDI. With 18 400 new jobs created in 2007, Poland was second in terms of number of new jobs. However, this figure is a 41% drop when compared to the 31 000 new jobs created in 2006.

SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONES - Poland's Special Economic Zones brought positive results in 2007, attracting a further 3 M EUR of investment in new projects and a 25% rise in new jobs to 36 000. Krakow region led the growth figures, thanks to 126 M EUR investment by MAN Trucks in Niepolomice.

WAGES - Polish average corporate gross wage measured 985 EUR in June, a rise of 12.0% y-o-y.

IT - The IBM Software Development Laboratory wants to hire an additional hundred employees at its technology laboratory in Krakow. IBM is seeking software development managers, testers and software service consultants.

TECHNOLOGY - Samsung wants to double the number employees in its Centre for Mobile Technologies Development. At the moment, the R&D center has nearly 100 employees specializing in mobile phone software testing and development.

REAL ESTATE - Poland has the second most attractive real estate market in Central-Eastern Europe (CEE) and the ninth most attractive market in the world, according to a ranking by the AT Kearney.

IT - The Polish IT market was worth 7.3 Bn EUR in 2007, which is 16.5% higher than previous year.

Swedish furniture giant IKEA plans to invest 165 M EUR on a shopping and leisure complex in Lublin. The complex will be completed by 2011.

BROADBAND - Poland has taken its first tentative steps to introducing real IPTV over Fibre-to-the-Home by creating the Chamber of Ethernet Communication. Its members are small Ethernet companies with a combined total of around 250 000 Ethernet sockets who at present offer internet access.

PRODUCTION - Fiat Powertrain Technologies Poland will invest 178 M EUR in Bielsko-Biala, creating 460 jobs.

AUTOMOTIVES - Ford is returning to Poland by investing 200 M EUR into a new plant. The plant will manufacture 120 000 Ford Ka's annually.

May 2008

ECONOMY - According to the National Bank of Poland, the Polish economy is still enjoying a period of strong growth. Due to the fact that the economic forecasts for the Euro area have become bleaker and the slowdown of the US economy, the Finance Ministry is predicting a slower, still strong growth of 5.5% for 2008. The forecasted growth is still twice as fast as in the EU as a whole.

MACHINERY INDUSTRY - MTU Aero Engines, a German aviation company is soon starting to build a factory in Jasionka, South East Poland. The project will be worth 70 M EUR and the factory will mainly produce rotating blades for low-pressure turbines.

IT OUTSOURCING - Acxiom, the American company specializing in the supply and management of information for businesses, has chosen Gdansk as the headquarters of its new global operations department. The company is going to employ 100 people at its new branch this year, with the possibility of hiring up to 500 people- mainly IT-specialists. The initial opening date for the office is expected to be in July.

PAPER INDUSTRY - Stora Enso, the Finnish paper producing company, has been awarded tax exempt status in the Warminsko- Mazurska SEZ and intends to apply for EU support. This concerns construction of a plant in a 355 M EUR project, which will produce 93% of its paper from recycled materials. The plant is expected to employ 100 people. The representatives of the company stress, however, that the investment is yet to be confirmed, but it is certain that the company is only considering location in Poland.

INDUSTRY - German firm Bosch, the diversified industrial giant, announced it would spend 30 M EUR on new projects in Poland this year. Lion's share of the sum will be spent on a new diesel particulate filters plant in Mirków near Wroclaw, a joint venture with Japan's Denso.The facility, which is due to start operations in 2009, will employ about 250 people.

March 2008

SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONES - Special economic zones (SEZs) in Poland are hoping to attract over 200 new companies, 16.000 new jobs and investments worth more than EUR 3 bln in 2008. The government has also promised that the foreign investors will receive more transparent service in 2008 than earlier through close co-operation between the foreign company, the Polish Information and Foreign Investments Agency and the SEZs. As a good example, a group of foreign companies gained recently clearance to proceed with investment of approximately EUR 110 mln, creating 800 jobs in the Lodz SEZ. The largest investment will be made by an IKEA supplier, Correct, with its investment of close to EUR 50 mln and 100 new jobs.

AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY - Poland and Romania are the front-running sites for a new Daimler car factory. Both countries have low labor costs and convenient locations enabling easy transportation to Western Europe. Daimler wants to produce Mercedes A- and B-Class cars in the new factory.

TRANSPORT - PKP Intercity, the Polish rail company plans to invest EUR 140 mln to upgrade its customer service. In 2008, the company will also invest approximately EUR 120 mln to modernize its rolling stock and buy new train cars. This is continuation to its last year's project worth of EUR 55 mln. PKP Intercity hopes to increase its sales in 2008 by at least 10% compared to 2007.

January 2008

CONSUMER GOODS - FMCG producer Procter & Gamble (P&G) will invest a total of $100 (zl.247) million in Poland, according to Marek Kapucinski, the company's local executive. Firm would invest $50 (zl.123) million in its existing diaper factory in Warsaw, as well as another $50 million in a new cosmetics factory.

WHITE GOODS - Italian white goods producer Indesit will double its investment in Poland by 2009, said the company's president Vittorio Merloni. So far the company has invested 120 million euros (zl.440 million) in Poland since 1999 and will spend another 120 million euros on two washing machine and dishwasher plants under construction in Radomsko in central Poland. Indesit also plans to expand its kitchen stove and refrigerator facilities in Lódz.