Advisory:Matraszek on the coming Elections

Energy:Shale gas gasps

Equities:Mobius keen on Poland

“This will be huge”

March 2015vol. 7 no. 2(48)Price: 20 zł

Prop Trader Ian Firla targets niche of corporate FX needs

3rd annual FDI Poland Investor Awards, recognizing top foreign companies operating in Poland

Nearly 300 international guests. Top executives from 23 countries. Awards categories for 19 countries/regions. Special discounts for 17 Chambers of Commerce members:

UK, France, Japan, Korea, Poland-China Chamber, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, US, Italy, Scandinavia, Belgium, Netherlands, Canada, Ireland.

FDI Poland Investor Awards15 October 2015

Premier Sponsor

Associated SponsorsAwards Sponsors

Supporting Chambers of Commerce

Organizer Organizer

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FDI Poland Investor Awards15 October 2015

FDI Poland Investor Awards 2014 Jury

FDI Poland Investor Awards 2014 Winners

Top Technology Park of the Year

Top Special Economic Zone of the Year

Top CEE (Central East Europe) Investor

Top German or Austrian Investor

Top Swiss Investor

Top French Investor Top Benelux Investor Top Iberian Investor Top Scandinavian Investor

Top UK/Irish Investor

Top Indian Investor Top Japanese Investor Top Korean Investor Top Chinese Investor Top Investor of the Year – Rest of World

Top Canadian Investor Top U.S. Investor

Steve RankSenior Trade

Commissioner - Central Europ, Australian Trade

Commission

Karl SchmidtCommercial Counselorm,

Austrian Embassy in Warsaw

Antoni F. ReczekChairman, British-Polish Chamber of Commerce

Nicolas LepageCounsellor (Commercial)

and Senior Trade Commissioner, Embassy of

Canada in Poland

Edward Zhuvicepresident, Polsko-Chinska Rada Biznesu

Marek MatraszekFounding Partner, CEC Government Relations

Jean-Marc FenetMinister-Counsellor, Embassy of France

Michael KernChairman, Polish-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (AHK Poland)

Kari VähäkangasCommercial Counsellor, Head of Finpro Poland

Amit LathSr. Vice President,

Indo-Polish Chamber of Commerce & Industry

Mike HoganCommercial Counsellor,

Embassy of Ireland

Tal HarmelinDirector for Economic Affairs to Poland and

Czech Republic, Embassy of Israel to Poland

Yoshito OkadaPresident / Zwiazek

Pracodawcow Shokokai, Japanese Chamber of

Commerce

Kwon Dong-seokCounselor, Embassy of

the Republic of Korea in Poland

Inese SulzanokaHead of the Representative

Office in Poland, Investment and

Development Agency of Latvia

Ernesto MaldaHead for Commercial and Economic Affairs, Embassy

of Mexico to Poland

Slawomir MajmanPresident, Polish

Information and Foreign Investment Agency S.A.

(PAIiIZ)

Antonio CastroVice-President, Polish - Portuguese Chamber of

Commerce (PPCC)

Stefan Bekir Assanowicz

Chairman, Polish-Spanish Chamber of Commerce

Vladislav ChlipalaCommercial Counsellor, Embassy of the Slovak

Republic

Chi-young ChenDirector, Economic Division of Taipei

Economic and Cultural Office in Poland

Martin OxleyDirector, UKTI Poland

Nguyen Duc ThanhCommercial Counselor,

Vietnam Embassy

Cover Story

5 “This will be huge”

BPO/Shared Servies News

8 CEE Shared Services and Outsourcing Awards

Energy (17) Shale gas dreams boosted by San Leon gas discovery; EBRD targets

renewable energy sector for investment (18) CCoal miners clash

(19) Australian Balamara bullish on Polish coal

Equities

20 Mark Mobius of Templeton Emerging Markets Group keen on Poland

FDI Investment (22) Tenders in for 70 Military Helicopters (23 ) eWork Scandinavia

sets up operations in Poland; Poland signs agreement for World Exposition

in Milan, EXPO 2015; Contest for the store operator at EXPO 2015; MTU

Aero Engines in Aviation Valley gets bigger; Polish farmers to continue

protests against new land sale laws; Polish President on business mission

to Japan; S3 - The Route linking Sweden to Greece via Poland; New PLN

9 million investment in machine factory; Samsung Electronics launches

first appliances factory in EU – in Poland; New programme for Śląsk and

Małopolska to attract investors

City Investment News (27) Gdańsk/Gdynia (29) Łódź (30) Kraków (31) Wrocław; Katowice (32)

Poznań

Chambers of Commerce News (33) Austria; Finland; Portugal (34) Scandinavia; Taiwan (35) U.S.; Vietnam

Events

36 Polish capital market awards

Leadership & Discipline

38 Marcin Gortat: The Forbes Interview

Table of Contents

March 2015vol. 7 no. 2(48)

Published by: BiznesPolska sp.z o.o.ul. Długa 44/50, bud. D, lok 704, 00-241 Warszawatel.: 022 831 7062

General Manager and Editor:Thom Barnhardt (tb@bizpoland.pl)

Editorial staff and writers:Leon Paczyński, Monika TutakAdvertising Sales:Gerard Szrama (gerard@biznespolska.pl)tel.: 022 831 7062Research:Ula Tsytsyk (ula@biznespolska.pl)

Graphic Design: Sławek Parfianowicz (sparfianowicz.wordpress.com)

Subscribe to BizPoland MagazineAnnual subscribers to BizPoland Magazine receive our monthly magazine, as well as all our business supple-ments for free: CEE Shared Services & Outsourcing, City Invest Poland, Top Shopping Centres Poland, Wind Energy Poland, Food Exports Poland. 500 zł for one year.

Details at subs@bizpoland.pl or call +48-22-831-7062

Advisory: (13) A plea for some common sense (14) Scary acronyms that are changing international business (15) The Final Straight (16) Renewable Energies Act final version adopted

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2015 March

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countries such as Poland, India or Hungary, which offer lower run-ning costs and an equally adept workforce, Firla argues that lower personnel costs are not the reason for operating from Poland. “We’re here because we think there is a great deal of talent here”, said Firla, suggesting that the absence in Poland of large prop-trading firms like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan puts OSTC at an advantage. OSTC maintains strong contacts with global exchanges such as Liffe and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and operates a new line of business in educational training working with CME and muliple universities across Poland.

The global derivatives market is still largely unknown in Poland and the company considers its budding educational initiatives as one way to raise awareness of the market’s potential.

So with a successful track-record of proprietary trading, OSTC is launching two new business lines: education and FX for corporates.

“There is a strong demand for trading knowledge”, said Firla.

The new business line of education will target traders and treasury departments of top banks, energy companies and large exporters, with the inten-tion of purely education, “not to sell a product”, according to

“We’ve become one of the biggest in the world in terms of transacted volumes for exchange-traded futures”, said Firla. He said that the OSTC is trading FX volumes of about 15-20 mil-lion pln each month now.

“Ten years ago, we started with very small volumes. Now we are trading well over 100 million annually”.

The proprietary trading side of OSTC has no clients, so its employ-ees are trading the shareholders’ funds against banks and hedge funds via recognised exchanges such as LIFFE, EUREX, the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE).

As a “market neutral” trading company with a risk-averse disposi-tion, the firm focuses on trading the

“spread”, mostly in interest rate and

FX futures. Firla said that traders trade high volumes on so-called

“calendar spreads”, which reduces their risks relative to outright posi-tions. The firm is active in trading of fixed-income securities, commodities, energy, and interest rate contracts.

While several prop houses have set up their futures operations in

OSTC Poland, the first proprietaty futures trading firm in Poland, sees a big business opportunity in target-ing the growing foreign exchange (FX) needs of Poland’s corporate market. While Poland’s large banks are looking after their largest clients first, OSTC sees a niche between the retail and banking FX markets.

“This will be huge”, said Ian Firla in a recent interview in his offices with BizPoland Magazine.

Clients in the mid-market may be under-served, suggested Firla, adding that the energy sector and export sector are particularly of interest for the market of “de-liverable” foreign exchange.

Firla and OSTC pioneered proprietary trading in Poland, with the establishment of OSTC Poland in 2005. “Proprietary

trading was not being done in Poland”, said Firla. Many bright minds who wanted to trade had to move to London or New York

– or trade retail for themselves. Firla was born in Poland, and

left to the United Kingdom in 1974 at the age of 4. In 2005, Firla was tapped by OSTC’s UK team to set up the Poland operations, with the company owned amongst Firla and the five UK-based directors. Prior to OSTC, Firla had his own IT con-sultancy and was living in Milan. In addition to running the Poland operations, Firla serves as the group Chief Operations Officer.

OSTC started with one office in Warsaw and nine traders. As of early 2015, OSTC Poland, oper-ating from offices in Warsaw, Poznan, Lodz, Krakow, Gdansk and Wroclaw, employs more than 250 traders and a back office of about 30 people. These top cities have large student centres and top class economics faculties.

Cover Story

“This will be huge”Prop Trader Ian Firla targets niche of corporate FX needs

“Ten years ago, we started with very small volumes. Now we are trading well over 100 million annually”

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OSTC believes that this huge market (not just in Poland, but globally as evidenced by their push into FX in the UK home-base) is poorly served, and that the margins charged by banks are too high and their service quality too low. “Banks are look-ing after their biggest clients first”, said Firla, suggesting that the large swath of middle-mar-ket clients could be served better.

OSTC’s Firla said the firm will look to form long-term, trans-parent relationships with compa-nies where any margins or fees it earns are fully disclosed. It will also offer a free audit to compa-nies where it will assess historic foreign exchange transactions and demonstrate any savings that could have been made.

from the university-based to tailor-made trainings in-side corporates and banks.

Disruptive FX dealsBut the expansion into the FX business clearly has the potential for explosive growth.

OSTC will target finance direc-tors and cash and treasury-man-agers of businesses with frequent and sizable deliverable foreign exchange needs. For example, an importer of Chinese clothing must settle the trade, giving rise to a foreign exchange need. Or an exporter of Polish meat must clear his final deal, converting foreign currency to Polish zloty.

For the most part, these for-eign exchange needs in Poland are handled by the client’s bank.

Firla. He is keen to underline that OSTC’s education business is not a “Trojan horse” to sell its prod-ucts, suggesting that competing educational programs are often used to promote that bank’s FX/futures solutions exclusively.

The firm’s educational initia-tives are being pursued in col-laboration with multiple univer-sities, including the University of Warsaw’s economics faculty, which will offer trading training programs in cooperation with CME. A kind of “training wheels” for students to hone their skills, the program aims to be a feeder to banks and other traders like OSTC who need well-trained traders for their operations.

OSTC has planned 50 educ-tional programs in 2015,

Cover Story

A Welsh, serial entrepreneur raised almost £1m – in mid-2014 - to launch a new foreign exchange business. To be known as OSTC Foreign Exchange, the firm aims to serve companies exchanging large sums of money.

Debra Williams, a former member of the executive board of Tesco Bank, former managing director of online price comparison site Confused.com and a non-executive director of Ospreys Rugby, has launched the venture in partnership with OSTC, the largest derivatives trading house in the UK outside London.

OSTC Foreign Exchange (OSTC FX) has secured a £400,000 grant from the Wales Economic Growth Fund, which has been complemented by private investment from the shareholders in the new business: OSTC and Debra Williams.

OSTC FX will target the finance directors of businesses with overseas trading activities. Currently, these businesses either use their banks to exchange money or are forced to call around London-based brokers seeking a better deal.

OSTC FX’s offering will be pan-UK and the business is already exploring the possibility of opening offices in other UK cities. OSTC FX will look to form long-term, trans-parent relationships with companies where any margins or fees it earns are fully disclosed.

It will also offer a free audit to companies where it will assess historic foreign exchange transactions and demon-strate any savings that could have been made.

In order to more aggressively develop business with corporate clients, Derek Redmond, the former British 400m record breaker and Olympian, has joined foreign exchange start-up OSTC FX as a business de-velopment manager. The former Commonwealth and European Champion in the 4×400 Relay as well as the World Silver medalist in 1987 is tasked in his role at OSTC with developing relationships with companies across the UK with exposures to foreign exchange

rates. OSTC UK expands aggressively into FX for corporates

A Welsh, serial entrepreneur raised almost £1m – in mid-2014 - to launch a new foreign exchange business. To be known as OSTC Foreign Exchange, the firm aims to serve companies exchanging large sums of money.

Debra Williams, a former member of the executive board of Tesco Bank, former managing director of online price comparison site Confused.com and a non-executive director of Ospreys Rugby, has launched the venture in partnership with OSTC, the largest derivatives trading house in the UK outside London.

OSTC Foreign Exchange (OSTC FX) has secured a £400,000 grant from the Wales Economic Growth Fund, which has been complemented by private investment from the shareholders in the new business: OSTC and Debra Williams.

OSTC FX will target the finance directors of businesses with overseas trading activities. Currently, these businesses either use their banks to exchange money or are forced to call around London-based brokers seeking a better deal.

OSTC FX’s offering will be pan-UK and the business is already exploring the possibility of opening offices in other UK cities. OSTC FX will look to form long-term, trans-parent relationships with companies where any margins or fees it earns are fully disclosed.

It will also offer a free audit to companies where it will assess historic foreign exchange transactions and demon-strate any savings that could have been made.

In order to more aggressively develop business with corpo-rate clients, Derek Redmond, the former British 400m record breaker and Olympian, has joined foreign exchange start-up OSTC FX as a business development manager. The former Commonwealth and European Champion in the 4×400 Relay as well as the World Silver medalist in 1987 is tasked in his role at OSTC with developing relationships with companies across the UK with exposures to foreign exchange rates. n

OSTC UK expands aggressively into FX for corporates

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OSTC also has ambitions to begin trading on the Warsaw Stock Exchange this year, said Firla. “The WSE would like us to bring the liquidity. We are massive liquidity providers for exchanges.” He said trading in commodities, interest rate derivatives and government bonds would be of interest to OSTC. “The exchange recog-nizes that we are a very good marketing tool for them.”

OSTC’s shift from its roots of proprietary trading, with no external clients, to servicing a corporate client-base will pres-ent new challenges for the firm, such as the need for market-ing and brand-building among Poland’s corporates, as well as business development and client relations. And it will also open a new area of growth for the firm, with a large pool of potential clients heretofore served almost exclusively by Polish banks. n

According to Paul Langley, managing director of OSTC FX in the UK: “The reality is that foreign exchange remains a cumbersome and opaque market which lacks choice and transpar-ency for companies. It is our intention that OSTC FX becomes a disruptive player in this sector. By forming long-term relation-ships with clients based on trust and transparency it is our aim to change the ways in which finance directors think about foreign exchange while illustrat-ing some substantial savings that can be made by firms.”

Michael Shirley, Managing Director of OSTC, said: “The incumbent players make their money by charging clients a margin over the exchange rate they secure in the open mar-kets. While there is nothing wrong with this, the extent of this margin is seldom disclosed and is rarely consistent.”

Cover Story

OSTC - ProfileThe OSTC Group, or OSTC Limited, is a proprietary trad-ing and electronic market making firm based in London. OSTC was formed following the integration of Onscreen Trading and Trading Connections in 2005. The firm was founded in 1999 by Jonny Aucamp, Rob Brophy, Peter Green, Danny Langley and Mark Slade, former Liffe trad-ers in London, and has over 300 employees. The firm’s pri-mary business is proprietary trading and electronic market making, and specialises in the trading of interest rates and commodity derivatives. It has offices in United Kingdom, Poland, Spain, Portugal, Canada, Mauritius and India.

Its core focus is on market neutral strategies through high-volumes on derivatives products on CME, CBOT, NYSE Euronext Liffe and ICE that benefits from liquidity provision schemes.

While an independent trading house, it is an active par-ticipant at the world’s major exchanges, including NYSE Euonext Liffe, CME, CBOT, and ICE. OSTC was founded by five friends and ex-LIFFE traders – Johnny Aucamp, Robert Brophy, Peter Green, Danny Langley and Mark Slade – in 2005 after merging their two companies OST and TC (acronyms “On-Screen Trading” and “Trading Connections”).

The firm deploys a disciplined, risk adverse approach to market making which produces consistent results. As market makers, OSTC provides offers to buy and sell Futures with the goal of making the spread, without tak-ing directional risk. Proprietary firm trading tools back up their traders. In the world of “market-making”, OSTC competes for providing liquidity to the market based on characteristics such as price and order size. n

Domestic foreign exchange market set for growth In 2013 the Bank for International Settlements coordinated a survey on turnover in foreign exchange and over-the-counter derivatives markets. 53 central banks and monetary authorities, including Narodowy Bank Polski, participated in this study. They collected data from around 1,300 financial institutions on the value of transactions concluded in April 2013 in the foreign exchange market (which includes the spot market, outright-forwards, fx swaps, CIRS and currency options) and the OTC interest rate derivatives mar-ket (FRA, IRS, including OIS, and interest rate options). Eighteen domestic banks and branches of credit institutions were surveyed in Poland. The purpose was to obtain comprehensive and internation-ally comparable statistical information on the liquidity and struc-ture of the respective markets.

The most important data concerning the foreign exchange and OTC interest rate derivatives markets in Poland are presented below: • The average daily net turnover in the domestic foreign exchange

market in April 2013 amounted to USD 7,564 million, of which USD 5,446 million were transactions involving the Polish zloty; internet trading platforms allowing retail clients to speculate in the foreign exchange market using cash-settled forward transac-tions have become increasingly popular;

• Fx swaps continued to be the most actively traded instruments in the domestic foreign exchange market; average daily turnover in these instruments in April 2013 amounted to USD 4,581 mil-lion, of which USD 3,088 million were transactions involving the Polish zloty.

• The average daily turnover in the domestic spot market in April 2013 amounted to USD 2,324 million (an increase of 19% at cur-rent exchange rates compared to the value of transactions in April 2010), of which USD 1,730 million were transactions involv-ing the Polish zloty. n

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August 2014 prepared a Economic Promotion Strategy dedicated to BPO/SSC industry. The main goal of this strategy is to strenghten “soft incentives” by establishing stron-ger connections with universities and providing potential investors. Companies that chose Rzeszow in 2014: Randstad - Dutch consulting HR company. Mobica - British IT company plans to hire 130 employ-ees specializing in software engi-neering for mobile devices.

Emerging City of the Year – CEE: Kaunas200% in projects, 450% growth in new jobs. New investors included Bentley Systems - BPO, IT 50 new jobs planned. Intermedix - SSC IT support and Development - 500 new jobs planned.

Kaunas has long been a compe-tence center for IT, but has only

transfer perspective with 25 pro-cesses being successfully migrated. These were fund services processes (e.g. Fund Dealing Services, Fund Accounting and Transfer Agent). The migration often involved creating a new operating model and training staff in “the internal client” location.

Business Centre Manager of the Year – BPO: Krzysztof Herdzik - General Manager, WNS Poland.Polish financial director led the set-up of one of world’s largest Indian BPO firms operations in Gydnia. Combines financial background with strong employee-motivation skills.

Emerging City of the Year - Rzeszow30% growth. Being aware of the huge potential of BPO/SSC indus-try, Rzeszów City authorities in

26 Companies were distinguished

on 5 February at the 3rd annual

CEE Shared Services and

Outsourcing Awards Gala. More

than 275 executives attended,

from 21 countries across the

CEE region, western Europe,

Scandinavia, United States, and

India. Winners included:

Business Centre Manager of the Year – Shared Services: Richard Piskorz, Head of Operations Asset and Fund Services, BNP Paribas Services

Managed 80% growth in head-count in 2014 with intensive process transfer tasks: 25 processes being successfully migrated. Staff growth: 2014 was a challenging and dynamic year for BP2S Warsaw. The year 2014 was also intensive from a process

BPO/Shared Servies News

CEE Shared Services and Outsourcing Awards

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Shared Services Firm of the Year – CEE: BarclaysNearly 1500 smart employees in Vilnius are an integral part of Barclays’ global network, operat-ing this globally recognized center of excellence (CoE) for both Java and IOS development, as well as for project management. 40 – 60% re-duction of running costs over 2010 -2014 for work transferred to BTCL from higher cost locations. Many of Barclays’ global teams are now led from BTCL-Vilnius. The rapid growth of the site over the past 5 years is a testament to the depth of skills and value to the wider Barclays’ organization. It is now the largest of Barclays Technology Centers in Eastern Europe and it continues to expand the services offered – 2014 saw the first non-IT function, HR Operations, being added.

Shared Services Firm of the Year – Poland: CiscoDuring its first 2,5 years of opera-tion, the center has surpassed ex-pectations both in the ability to at-tract talent, as well as the quality of the support services delivered and customer satisfaction achieved. As

City of the Year -– CEE: Vilnius56% growth from previous year, and Vilnius is attracting higher - added value jobs such as Business Analytics, Anti-Money Laundering, Asset Management Support, IT development. New investors in-clude: Revel Systems; Valuetech; Lindorff; Ahlstrom; Intermedix; GreenCarrier and Swedbank.

New-entrant SSC of the Year: GE HealthcareThe GE Healthcare IT&PE (Information Technology and Process Excellence) organization is in the process of establishing and scaling an advanced IT Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Krakow, with projected investment from GE of $50 million til 2019. As part of a global in-sourcing initiative, the organization has identified Krakow as the location with the talent and infrastructure capability to meet its needs. Similar centres al-ready exist in Michigan, USA and Bangalore, India. Over the next two years the centre will grow to over 200 employees, consisting of senior IT professionals.

recently started to use its poten-tial in SSC/BPO. Close partnership with universities builds talent pool of highly qualified multilingual specialists in IT, HR, finance, busi-ness administration, mathematics and statistics. Kaunas municipality is proactive in providing aftercare services, i.e. recently a legislation was passed allowing businesses that create 200 new jobs or more to use parking in the city center for half of the price.

Best City of the Year: KrakowFrom a well-established base, Krakow grew employment 20%+ in the SSC/BPO sector in 2014.

Newest investors include: Lund-beck, Getinge, SABMiller, Solar-winds, Softserve, TeleTech, Arvato.

After a few years of intensive work on building an attractive cli-mate for investment in Krakow, there are currently 80 companies engaged in a broad range of ser-vices for business, offering em-ployment for about 35,000 people. Employment in this sector has grown almost 50% increase in just 2 years. For comparison, the global average stands at around 11%.

BPO/Shared Servies News

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Since 2014 also providing Legal Process Outsourcing services. Approximately 330 employees.

IT Services Firm of the Year – Poland: Atos ServicesAtos is an international informa-tion technology services company, serving a global client base. We have grown from just 500 employees four years ago to more than 4,000 today. Focus on IT security services is driv-ing growth. Atos has been operat-ing in Poland since 2000. Thanks to acquisition of Siemens IT Solutions and Services in 2011 Atos acquired its present shape. Throughout the recent 3 years the dynamic growth of the company developed its re-sources from 500 employees into an entity with over 2,5 thousand em-ployees. As for now, Atos in Poland is present in 4 locations: Poland Managed Services Offshore Center in Bydgoszcz, Global Delivery Center Europe in Wroclaw, local Systems Integration Office in Gdansk and Headquarters Office in Warsaw.

Most Unique Services Provider – Poland: Intitek PolskaIts competitive advantage on the market is its ability to mobilize in-stantly engineering teams.

Intitek is taking over engineer-ing projects in its own platform offices or through delegation of its staff.|We permanently work out technical specifications, general

delivering services to some of the largest corporations in the world.

BPO Firm of the Year – Poland: Capita PolskaCapita Polska predominately ser-vices the British market with key Group Clients including cutting-edge new services via: Capita Company Secretarial Services: provides in-ternational clients with all aspects of their company secretarial and governance needs; Capita Investor Relations: manages and delivers tai-lored investment support to experts. 2014 proved to be a landmark year for Capita Polska with the launch of a contract with Vanquis Bank - the Centre’s first contract to provide ser-vices to the Polish Market.

IT Services Firm of the Year – CEE: Bulpros Consulting (Bulgaria)Bulpros is providing the whole spectrum of IT lifecycle services – software development in all core technologies, design and develop-ment of web and mobile solutions and applications, IT Infrastructure services with focus on infrastruc-ture consulting for MS technolo-gies and cloud services. To sup-port the operations of the clients’ IT systems Bulpros is providing customer services including help-desk, application and infrastruc-ture technical support, content and data services as well as tele-sales and telemarketing service.

a result, the center’s growth has exceeded the original plans: 100% of headcount growth between 2012 and 2013; 2013 and 2014. December 2013 – 260 employees; December 2014 – 515 employees; December 2015 – Cisco is planning to dou-ble the number of employees in Krakow over next 2 years.

BPO Firm of the Year – CEE: CPL Integrated ServicesOf CPL’s 4,000+ permanent staff,nearly 1,000 are based in Hungary. Key global clients in-clude Google, HP, Microsoft, IBM. CPL Integrated Services of-fer a full suite of solutions for Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO), Contingent Workforce Solutions (CWS), Managed Service Provider (MSP) programs and Consultancy.|Driving strategic flexibility; Cpl Integrated Services enables companies to adapt to changing business conditions through innovative and adap-tive workforce strategies.|CPL Integrated Services in Hungary, Ireland, Tunisia and Netherlands provide worldwide multinational companies, with IT support, order processing, fulfillment and admin-istrative services.

Employment at December 2013: 780; at December 2014: 900; pro-jected at December 2015: 1050

Most Unique Services Provider – CEE: Process SolutionsLoan staff services are the sub-ject of this nomination as most unique services provider. This is the company’s fastest growing business-line in recent years, which is driven by demand from our SSC clients. Process Solutions is an ex-Arthur Andersen Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Group now op-erating a dynamic and rapidly ex-panding independent accounting business in the European region,

BPO/Shared Servies News

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accounts across Poland. Key Clients: Lufthansa Global Business Services, SABMiller Global Business Services, Herbalife EMEA Finance and Operations Service Centre, RWE Group Business Services, Capita Polska, RR Donnelley DocumentSolutions.

Best Office Development for BPO/SSC Sectors: Vastint LEED Gold certificate for this Poznan-based mega office complex with focus on the SSC/BPO sectors. Vastint is part of the Inter IKEA Property Division, and has been de-veloping property in Poland since 1992. Business Garden Poznan is a modern office centre with a planned area of 80,000 m2.

General Advisory/Location Advisory firm of the year:

PWC PolandCompanies that PWC worked with include Kemira, Amway, Metinvest, Akzo Nobel (BPO), IAG, ALK, Ashland, Fresenius Kabi, Quad Graphics, CEDC. We have also led the projects to design and build solution for PwC’s CEE internal Shared Service Centers.

Real Estate Advisory: Jones Lang LasalleIn Poland, JLL advised on ca 30 transactions, signed by business services centres with foreign capi-tal in 2014. It is also worth noting that in 2013, JLL advised on lease agreements, totaling 85,000 sq m of office space (40% market share), which were signed by business ser-vices sector companies.

BPO Contract of the Year: Global Remote Services (Romania) and Airport of RomeThis is an IT-support contract with the Airport of Rome. GRS won with a price 40% lower than the base-price.

Employer of the Year – BPO: CPLOperating with 900 employees, in 2014 CPL IS have paid out just over 1M EUR in key benefits. CPLIS be-lieves that employee health is a ba-sic requirement for successful and productive work.

Key benefits include the following Employee Perks: Meal vouchers, Local Transport Pass, Accommodation Card, Recreation Card, Dining Card, Voluntary health fund contribu-tion, Voluntary pension fund con-tribution, Culture events voucher, Schooling support voucher. Discount scheme: 10-20% off in over 25 differ-ent outlets across Hungary ranging between restaurants, coffee shops, banks, shops, and health services. CPLIS believes that employee health is a basic requirement for successful and productive work. Here are some

examples of our initiatives: Office massage; Company doctor visit with free services on-site.

Recruitment Firm of the Year: Hays Specialist RecruitmentOur business grew 20% YoY which a major achievement considering the scale. Biggest client in 2014: Honeywell centre in Romania – over 400 hires in 2014. Hays has been chosen as an RPO supplier for all internal and external Honeywell permanent hires across EMEA re-gion. One of the most important part within that contract was staff-ing in Romania where Honeywell decided to build a multifunctional centre supporting internal clients at regional and global level.

Executive Search Firm of the Year: Advisory Group TEST Human ResourcesRazor-sharp focus on ExecSearch for the SSC/BPO sector, hav-ing grown up with the sector in Krakow, and now with national

designs, detailed designs, program-ming, testing, serial launch as well as further optimization. On a daily basis we help local Managers and Directors of technical departments of large corporations to set up teams in order to get their projects delivered on time. Intitek is a global outsourced services provider in the field of mechanical and IT engi-neering. Intitek is serving many major corporations from the auto-motive, industrial vehicles, aero-space and IT sectors.

Employer of the Year – Shared Services: Mann+Hummel Service s.r.o. The shared service centre Mann+Hummel Service s.r.o. has been providing services for other sub-sidiaries of the Mann+Hummel Group since 2007. The company’s portfo-

lio includes services in the follow-ing areas: Research & Development, Project Management, Project Controlling, Accounting, Country Financial Services, Information Technology & SAP support, Material Data Management & Quality, HR Services, Purchasing. Currently we employ more than 250 employees in Nová Ves and Brno (a subsidiary, spe-cializing in R&D, IT and HR services). Mann+Hummel Service, s.r.o. offers its employees a wide range of bene-fits, both financial and non-financial. The most popular benefits and those most frequently used by the employ-ees include the following: Support to reconcile work and family; flexible forms of work; 6 weeks of holiday, part-time employment for parents on maternity leave, possibility to work from home, company English nursery school in Třebíč for children from six months up to 6 years of age, extended operating hours in the kindergarten in Přibyslavice. Current employment: 250+.

BPO/Shared Servies News

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March 2015

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&SGH - DMA) and SGH &CIMA Advanced Diploma in Management Accounting (CIMA & SGH – ADMA).

Special Recognition Award: ASPIREASPIRE has created a model for other cities, to show how to spread the message that success is found-ed on presenting opportunity to people at all levels of society and by leveraging the energies of people working within SSC/ITO centres - that these people are the true heroes of the story. ASPIRE is the representative body of the technol-ogy and business services sector in Kraków. Founded in 2008, ASPIRE is widely credited as playing a key role in Kraków’s emergence as an IT and business services hub. ASPIRE’s mission is to accelerate the development of an ecosystem which will support the continuing development of the IT and business services sector in Kraków, and in-cludes “harnessing the passion, en-ergy and expertise of our members at all levels of their organizations.” This year in the Tholons global rankings of Top Outsourcing Cities, Kraków ranked for the first time as the top location in Europe overtak-ing Dublin. The city is now ranked 9th globally. n

w Poznaniu, Volkswagen. In Katowice: The City of Katowice, Capgemini Polska, ING Services Polska. In Warszawa: Accenture, BNP Paribas Securities Services, Goldman Sachs, Hays Poland, Jones Lang LaSalle, Luxoft, Marriott, MSL GROUP, Stadion Narodowy, UBS. In Lodz: Infosys BPO Poland.

University-Business Cooperation of the Year: CIMA and SGH joint study programme in Management AccountingWarsaw School of Economics in collaboration with CIMA (The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) of-fers Interdisciplinary specialty programs in Polish and English at the undergraduate and gradu-ate levels, to prepare students to take up better-paying positions in F&A within internaional SSC organizations. Interdisciplinary specialty programs are imple-mented in Polish and English at the undergraduate and graduate levels. At the undergraduate level is the SGH &CIMA Certificate in Business Accounting (SGH & CIMA - CBA), while the graduate level is SGH &CIMA Diploma in Management Accounting (CIMA

The contract is also revolutionary, in that an Italian public-sector en-tity is outsourcing key support ser-vices to Romania. This contract was won by GRS after a public auction at which participated 12 bidding com-panies, located in Italy or abroad.

CSR Initiative of the Year: Poland Business RunWe help amputees. In the last three years we collected approximately 1,200,000 PLN, bought 28 prosthe-sis and changed 20 people’s lives. We are the biggest Charity Run in Poland and Poland Business Run 2015 is going to be even bigger and better, with enormous support from private, responsible busi-nesses, led especially by the SSC/BPO sector. Poland-wide in these cities: Krakow, Poznan, Katowice, Lodz, Warszawa. Poland Business Run is organized by busines (pri-vately-owned firms), the public-sector (local governments) and NGOs (Fundacja Jaska Meli Poza Horyzonty). Support from Luxoft, Radisson Blu Hotel Krakow, UBS, The Krakow ZIS Sports Infrastructure Board; in |Poznan: The City of Poznan, CenturyLink Technology Solutions, Franklin Resources Inc, MAN Accounting Center, Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny

BPO/Shared Servies News

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ADVISORY

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A plea for some common senseis Irish, costing 10% of all flight costs for up to 7 years, plus a penal interest charge and financial penalties.

It’s to be expected that the law may sometimes ap-pear to hurt in ways that are obviously unintended. The real problem in Poland is not the law, but rather the strictly legalistic culture of the authorities and complete lack of morality, as exacerbated by the pro-pensity for business to submit ill-judged applications for rulings which are simply inviting disaster.

Financial reportingOne of the joys of being a member state of the EU is that from time to time the country is forced to sup-press its natural love and affection for excessive red tape and make life easier for businesses. A recent example of this is the introduction of a simplified fi-nancial reporting regime for micro-entities. These are entities with annual turnover of up to PLN 3m, gross assets of up to PLN 1.5m and not more than 10 staff. If any 2 out of these 3 criteria apply, there are substantial simplifications in annual reporting requirements.

Although it was not required by EU law, Poland de-cided to bring not-for-profit organisations (charities, associations, employer federations, chambers of com-merce, etc) into the micro-entity reporting regime. The existing simplified reporting rules for not-for profit entities was abolished.

This is all well and good, but there is one small clause which was inserted into the new rules which is a nightmare for organisations such as associations and employer federations: the rules require that the “ap-proving body” (usually the members) hold a meeting and pass a resolution to adopt micro-entity reporting. Failing that, full financial statements are required, just as for a commercial company.

The new rules apply to all 2014 annual reports. They be-came law in September 2014, long after the organisations to which they relate had already held the annual member meetings for 2014. Therefore, for one year only, not-for profit organisations and micro-entities were seriously ex-pected to either convene a special meeting of members or to produce full accounts, as for a commercial business.

If all this strikes you as patently absurd, it’s because that’s precisely what it is. Why did the Government do it this way? The justification that was submitted with the bill illustrates the entire thought process from be-ginning to end: the members should make the decision “because the micro regime is optional.”

Apart from the cost and logistical issues involved in organising member meetings, the Government doesn’t seem to realise that, on the whole, the average member probably couldn’t care less about this. As for ordinary lim-ited companies, it’s about time that general meetings of single-member companies was abolished. Doesn’t anyone in the KRS feel just a bit embarrassed reading minutes of apparent shareholder meetings where the one person present solemnly delivered and approved the agenda and went on to pass resolutions in a secret ballot? n

This month I have decided to share two examples of the how thought processes work (or don’t work) amongst two of my favourite groups of people in Poland: the tax authorities and the people who draft new laws.

State-sponsored theftA shocking interpretation on withholding tax that poten-tially affects everyone in business was issued by the tax chamber in Katowice on New Year’s Eve 2014. It would be nice to think that their words of wisdom, suggesting that we all take on the might of the world’s airlines on behalf of the Polish tax system, could be dismissed as the drunk-en ramblings of a demented individual who had decided to crack open the bubbly when midnight stuck in Western Samoa whilst the boss was off skiing. Unfortunately though, no matter how absurd their interpretations, peo-ple do tend to take them seriously.

Polish law imposes a duty on businesses to withhold tax on certain payments made to foreign businesses, unless the foreign business is protected by a tax treaty. The classic examples are payments of dividends, inter-est and royalties, but Poland also imposes 10% tax on income earned in Poland by foreign airlines. The foreign airlines operating in Poland are undoubtedly all protect-ed by tax treaties. However, this being Poland, it is our job to prove to the tax authorities that a foreign busi-ness is in fact foreign. The form of proof required by law is a certificate of tax residency issued by the tax author-ity of the home country of the foreign business.

In the case of airlines, it’s perfectly obvious that British Airways is British and American Airlines is American, so you would think that we don’t need to worry. However, the Katowice tax chamber has now ruled that any business paying Ryanair and any other foreign airline is required to withhold 10% of the air fare unless they have a certificate of tax residency. If the online booking system can’t be persuaded to col-lect only 90% of the air fare on the credit card, or if the airline or the tax authority can’t be persuaded to arrange for vast numbers of tax residency certificates to be issued every year, the Polish business is liable for the tax. (If the rest of the world behaved this way, we could be talking about tens of millions of documents).

The tax authorities are fully aware of where major airlines are based, given that the airlines themselves claim treaty protection, and there is no conceivable jus-tification for imposing the letter of the law in this situ-ation, other than as a blatant means of State extortion.

To really understand the nature of the ruling, consider the following: A tax inspector visits a taxpayer one morn-ing, discovers that they have booked flights with Ryanair for their staff and is presented with a valid tax residency certificate. The inspector moves on to the next taxpayer, finds more Ryanair flights and finds that the taxpayer does not have a the residency certificate. The tax inspec-tor already has proof from the earlier visit that Ryanair is Irish. What happens next? The second taxpayer will be crucified for failing to have their own proof that Ryanair

By Steven FosterProcess Solutions www.ps-bpo.com

Steven.Foster@ps-bpo.com

14

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Advisory

Scary acronyms that are changing international business

fall under FBAR/FACTA. But he could not report the account or the amount in the account, which is neces-sary to avoid FBAR prosecution, because he could not actually get information on the account from the bank. Why could he not receive the information? Because he actually did not set up the account in the first place.

This meant liaison work with Polish prosecutors, who would only contact him (through us) once the bank had reported fraud. Keep in mind that the bank would not deal with us directly due to banking secrecy laws—again, the account that could hurt the client was actually not his account.

Next there is the question regarding how to report this to the police. As the client himself was not actually out any money, he did not truly have a case without making fairly complex legal arguments about damage to reputation and potential risk under FBAR prosecu-tion. Polish police (just like any in the world) do not particularly care for extremely-difficult-to-prosecute

international cases, as they eat up budget and time and may well be impossible to prosecute. Yet without such a filing, the client did not necessarily have an explana-tion to provide to FBAR officials.

Another option would be to file a hacking claim on the American side of the pond. Yet again no money was actu-ally lost. Sure, reputation, theoretical damages, but again this is not something a US agent necessarily gets excited about—and there is also another risk: any and all of the above means opening up a business to a de facto audit of books and emails, which in the end will be sent to FBAR officials (read tax officials) for their ultimate perusal.

In the end, this client actually was forced to do all of the above. After a great deal of pain and leaping through hoops, the papers were gotten, filed and the client could move on—but you can imagine that the advice, translation, liaison and legal work on both sides of the Atlantic did not come free.

Now understand that much of the above was not the result of a client being victimized by a crime, but that he suddenly was forced into a legal obstacle course that could foreseeably shut down his business. And the only defense? Get prepared for the worst with a tight compliance system that weathers a variety of storms—because unfortunate-ly, no matter how well one tries to run the business, these new threats are now forever on the horizon. n

FCPA. FACTA. FBAR. FCA.

If you do not know the meaning behind these rather scary acronyms above—it’s time to get familiar eith them, whether you are a United States citizen (or “per-son”) or not.

Why get familiar? Well, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) could sting if your company has a link back to the US stock market—and the link does not need to be direct. Your company could wind up facing millions in fines for a deal gone astray. This could be as innocent as having a sales person rig kickbacks to a hospital worker, but if you are the boss, you could also face prosecution.

Under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FACTA), you bank—if it happens to be located in a country like Poland that has ratified FACTA legisla-tion—will send information regarding your bank ac-counts to the United States Department of the Treasury. If you have not declared such accounts (if they totaled more than USD 10,000 during the course of a year), you could be looking at massive fines and criminal penalties that could effectively change your life.

Then there is FCA (the False Claims Act), which ba-sically has now enabled foreign whistleblowers to de facto represent the United States government when suing your company as “relators”—which means they not only can get large rewards, but the entire appara-tus has served as a basis for FCPA whistleblowers, who can receive up to 30 percent of any fine levied against a company that comes to more than USD 1 mln.

Now if the above does not worry you, perhaps it should. FCPA fines against companies came to more than USD 1.5 bln in 2014. Fines against FBAR violators came to approximately USD 5.5 bln. The wave of FCPA whistleblowers is just beginning to hit, and federal agents are now using all of the same techniques—in-cluding wire taps, bugging, surveillance, turning wit-nesses—to prosecute any of the cases above.

And in fact, it’s easy to get in trouble. Let’s take a typical situation faced by one of our cli-

ents. A shipping company executive realized that his account was hacked during transaction negotiations with a foreign client. The hacker convinced the foreign client to set up a bank account in Poland, which was fraudulently created at a Polish bank under a name similar to our client. The money was sent to the fraud-ulent account and promptly disappeared.

Now technically, our client was not out any money. He never received the money, and his foreign client was forced to resend the money to the correct account in order for the transaction to go through. Obviously, this did little for client relations, but that was only the beginning of his troubles.

First, the client arguably now had a foreign account set up in his name, which received money and would

By Preston SmithCEE Consulting Group;

preston.smith@ceecg.com

Get prepared for the worst with a tight compliance system that weathers a variety of storms—because unfortunately, no matter how well one tries to run the business, these new threats are now forever on the horizon.

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Advisory

barnstorming campaign tour of Poland, put him with-in shouting distance of 30% of the vote by early March.

All Duda needs for success is to enter the second round against Komorowski, and try to do what the much less dynamic Jaroslaw Kaczynski managed to do in 2010 - polarize the election around a simple choice of us vs. them, with the latter being the governing politi-cal establishment, represented by Komorowski him-self. Past presidential elections run on such polarizing lines have resulted in very close contests, with even the losing candidate obtaining close to 50% of the vote.

Komorowski should still win such an election, but the party that should be worried by such a narrow re-sult is the Civic Platform (PO) itself. Already led by a leader - Ewa Kopacz - lacking in the eyes of many cha-risma, political credibility and electoral legitimacy, the party can ill afford to face an opposition party whose candidate garnered between 40 and 50% of the vote in a national election just months earlier. Whereas 45% of the vote loses you an election in a Presidential race, anything above 40% gets you close to victory in a parliamentary race. Much will depend therefore if PiS can keep the Duda vote together and translate it into a surge for PiS in October. If so, an electoral upset of a PiS victory in October may become possible.

That in itself will not guarantee PiS government, as the party still lacks the ability to create a parliamen-tary majority through lack of parties prepared to do deals with it. It may transpire that the ruling PO will cobble together a grand coalition of the PSL and pos-sibly SLD (Democratic Left Alliance) to keep PiS out of power. Yet that scenario carries its own dangers for PO. Primarily it means that PO cannot guarantee its own candidate as becoming Prime Minister - that prize may go to the PSL’s Janusz Piechocinski. Secondly, a loss to PiS (even with PiS not creating a government) will inevitably unleash the barely concealed centrifu-gal forces in the PO party, which will be vying to pin blame on electoral defeat on the hapless Mrs Kopacz, and seeking to move quickly to replace her as Party leader. Throwing their hats into the ring will be cur-rent Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna, as well as current Defence Minister Tomasz Siemoniak.

By January 2016 Polish politics will look much differ-ent than in March 2015. Many of the old protagonists will be the same, but a new dynamic of change and evolution will have been unleashed. That includes the future of Andrzej Duda, who may yet cement his posi-tion as the anointed successor to Jaroslaw Kaczynski as PiS leader. After eight years of unchanging certain-ties, that new dynamic may be no bad thing. n

Marek Matraszek is the Founding Partner of CEC Government Relations. He can be reached on mm@cecgr.

com, mobile +48601-336040.

The Final StraightBy Marek Matraszek

2015 promises to be an interregnum in po-litical terms, marking a bridge between

a long period of government - the years of Donald Tusk and Ewa Kopacz as Prime Minister - when everything seemed to be predictable and set in stone, and a time of flux, new personalities and new alliances. Poland is moving into new political territory.

We have two key elections coming up in the coming months. Firstly, the Presidential elections on May 10th (and May 24th if there is a second round), followed by the parliamentary showdown in October 2015. The two elections are closely connected with each other, meaning we will be witness to a single six-month spec-tacle, rather than two discrete political events. Even a few weeks ago, it seemed as though the Presidential election would be a walkover for incumbent presi-dent Bronislaw Komorowski, who was enjoying high poll ratings, a supportive government, and success-fully projecting the image so beloved by Poles of their Presidents - consensual and an arbiter, rather than a partisan and activist campaigner. Against him, the opposition seemed so convinced of the inevitability of a Komorowski victory that they refused to run their party leaders against him, instead choosing proxy can-didates whose only task was seemingly to die a glorious political death.

However the first couple of weeks of the campaign suggest that whilst there may be no upset in store, at the very least Komorowski may be in for a tougher battle than expected. He started the campaign bad-ly, with a lackluster opening speech announcing his candidacy, and numerous communication mishaps

blamed on what seems to be a chaotically run cam-paign office. Secondly, the junior governing party, the PSL, broke ranks and fielded their own candidate, the young but dynamic Adam Jarubas. With other smaller candidates also nibbling away at the vote, it may be that Komorowski will miss by a whisker a victory in the first round, forcing him into a head-to-head con-test with Andrzej Duda, the Law and Justice (PiS) can-didate. Duda was much scorned by the media at first, but an impressive opening political rally, followed by a

By Marek Matraszek

CEC Government Relations

By January 2016 Polish politics will look much different than in March 2015. Many of the old protagonists will be the same, but a new dynamic of change and evolution will have been unleashed.

16

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Renewable Energies Act final version adopted

2015, so that the grid connection date is no later than 31 March 2019 (i.e. 48 months after the RES Act enters into force). The RES generator will have to present its proposal for adopting the time schedule within three months of the RES Act entering into force, i.e. presumably by end of June 2015. The timeline for offshore wind is 72 months.

• The government will publish the first reference prices by 31 December 2015.

• RES generators will have to be connected to the grid and produce their first kWh (by all devices) by 31 December 2015 to enter into the green certificate support system.

URE will publish the first auction by 31 March 2016. The auction will take part a minimum of 30 days after the auction has been published, presumably concluding in the second quarter of 2016.

• The regulation of 18 October 2012 – the so-called quotation regulation – will remain in force until no later than the end of 2017. So, if no further changes are adopted sooner, the quotation obligation will increase to 16% in 2017. For the year 2018 the government will have to enact a new quota for the green certificate system.

• The government will publish a report about the functioning about the RES support system and will propose legal changes by 31 December 2017. This re-port can be expected to be the basis for a substantial

downsizing of the quota obligation from 2018. Thus, green certificates prices should stay at an acceptable level until 2017 redemption period (i.e. until 30 June 2018). After this date a downsizing of the quota will take place and prices will be at risk so that a floor of PLN 100/MWh is likely. The cheapest technologies, e.g. large brownfield biomass, dedicated co-firing and onshore wind at the end of its support period, will still be profitable at this price level. So existing RES generators are recommended to switch to the auction system at the third auction in the first half of 2018 at the latest. n

On 20 February 2015 the Sejm finally adopted the

RES Act, accepting most of the changes made by

the Senate. The RES Act will enter into force after

the President signs it into the law and generally 30

days after it is published in the Journal of Laws –

presumably in March this year.

The feed-in tariffs for micro-installations up to 10kW remain at the level originally enacted by the Sejm at its third hearing in mid-January, i.e. PLN 0,75/kWh for PV up to 3kW and PLN 0,65/kWh for up to 10kW - substantially higher than the current PLN 0,52/kWh for PV up to 10kW in Germany. The RES Act introduces a cap of 500 MW for these feed-in tariffs. This cap might be hard to control as the feed-in tariffs will lead to a short boom for PV microinstallations from spring 2016 and the cap is likely to be reached within the first year. Consequently the Ministry of the Economy is already work-ing on an amendment to the RES Act.

The RES Act implements the following timeline:• A few changes to the Energy law act will enter into

force immediately after publication, i.e. in March 2015. These changes concern the obligation placed on large energy consuming enterprises to consume a certain share of renewable energy and cogen-eration energy, the extension of the redemption period for green certificates until end of June and the reorganisation of the registering process for green certificates.

• The remaining part of the RES Act generally enters into force 30 days after publication except for the changes to the existing and new support system (chapter 4).

• Co-firing installations (so-called “non-dedicated”) will receive 0.5 green certificates per MWh as soon as 30 days after publication of the RES Act; large hydropower plants will continue to receive green certificates until the end of 2015.

• The prequalification for the auction system at the Regulatory Office (URE) will start by 1 May 2015. URE has to qualify a RES generator within 30 days if its documentation is complete. A public tender for the electronic platform to conduct auctions will be held.

• The government will publish the amount of energy and its value for the first auction by 31 May 2015 for large RES generators and by 15 June 2015 for RES generators up to 1 MW.

• The regulations to establish OREO, the agency to settle contracts for difference, will enter into force by 1 October 2015.

• All existing grid connection contracts should be adapted within 6 months of the RES Act’s entry into force, i.e. presumably by end of September

by Christian Schnell

The RES Act introduces a cap of 500 MW for these feed-in tariffs. This cap might be hard to control as the feed-in tariffs will lead to a short boom for PV microinstallations from spring 2016 and the cap is likely to be reached within the first year. Consequently the Ministry of the Economy is already working on an amendment to the RES Act.

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“Full field development and first gas sales are expected by early 2016,” the companies said.

The Rawicz well began flow testing on Feb. 5 and has to date flowed at an aver-age rate of up to 4.5 million standard cubic feet per day.

Poland consumes around 16 billion cubic metres of gas a year, more than half of which is imported from Russia’s Gazprom . Domestic output at Poland’s gas distributor PGNiG exceeds 4 billion cubic metres.

In July 2014, San Leon Energy signed a joint venture agreement with PNR across seven concessions in Poland’s Permian Basin initially focused on developing the discov-ered, unproduced Siekierki and Rawicz gas fields. The Rawicz gas field is estimated to contain up to 17 BCF of recoverable methane gas in the Permian Rotliegendes forma-tion with potential upside for oil and gas production in the Zechstein Main Dolomite. n

development feasibility project has already been completed.”

Flow testing operations were completed on 28 February 2015, after which a phase of data collection will start evalu-ating pressure build up.

Palomar Natural Resources (PNR) operates the Rawicz project with a 65% interest. San Leon holds a 35% interest in the first two wells. U.S-based Palomar and London-listed gas explorer San Leon expect the first com-mercial gas flows and sales from the Rawicz gas well in western Poland at the beginning of 2016.

San Leon has previously said that the Rawicz well is likely to produce commercial amounts of conventional gas. Palomar is the operator of seven explo-ration concessions in Poland and owns 65 percent in the Rawicz venture, with the rest controlled by San Leon.

European shale gas firm San

Leon Energy has made its first

commercial gas discovery in

Poland.

Rawicz-12, an appraisal well in south-western Poland not far from Poznan, flowed gas at an increasing rate and reached up to 4.1 million cubic feet per day.

The company reported the news in late February, and said the gas quality is in line with expecta-tions and no significant amounts of water have been discovered.

“This is the well we have been waiting for - a significant gas discovery in one of the highest-priced gas markets in Europe”, said San Leon Energy executive chairman Oisin Fanning. San Leon plans to drill another three to five wells to develop the field, with the second well on Rawicz cur-rently being planning. Fanning: “The Rawicz field has existing gas infrastructure nearby and a

Energy

Shale gas dreams boosted by San Leon gas discovery

The European Bank for

Reconstruction and Development

(EBRD) plans to invest around

25% more in Poland this year

than last year, and is looking for

projects in renewable energy and

the financial sector, according to

EBRD’s Poland director Grzegorz

Zielinski.

The EBRD sees a role for itself in Polish banking consolida-tion, with the likes of Austrian Raiffeisen and General Electric lining up sales of local units.

“We ended last year in Poland with 600 million euros in new investments. We hope that this year the amount will be even higher,” said Zielinski. “We are selective, but if there are suitable projects, I don’t see why

our investments should not be 20-30 percent higher this year.”

The EBRD has so far invested almost 7 billion euros in Poland in more than 325 projects.

The EBRD, which last year made overall investments of 8.9 billion euros across the region, usu-ally buys minority stakes for 3-5 years. It has invested in renewable energy in Poland, and provided additional capital to local banks as well as the private sector.

It sees potential for renewed involvement in banking where the number of companies operat-ing in Poland is expected to fall. “We are examining whether the announced ownership changes and consolidations in the bank-ing sector can be of interest to us,” Zielinski said. “We believe it is possible that we can once again assume our role as an anchor investor. We are also interested in stock market listings of banks.”

Looking across other indus-tries, the EBRD should sign a 119 million euro credit deal with Polish utility Polenergia in the coming weeks, Zielinski said. But he stressed the EBRD did not plan to participate in energy sector consolidation planned by the Poland’s treasury ministry.

The Polish government plans to merge state-run power pro-ducers, such as PGE, Energa, Tauron, and Enea, to boost their investment potential.

“It would be hard for us to engage in the announced consolidation pro-cess in the Polish energy sector, as it runs against one of our main aims, which is market liberalisation,” Zielinski said. “We can, however, play a role in providing support for increasing efficiency in energy distribution,” he added. “We also want to engage in changing Poland’s energy mix and reducing the coun-try’s dependency on coal.” n

EBRD targets renewable energy sector for investment

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Police Clashes A revised plan, which Kopacz called “a good compromise for Poland’s mining industry,” could cost the state some 2.3 billion zlotys ($614 million) through 2016, the govern-ment says. Kompania Weglowa’s unprofitable mines will be trans-ferred to a separate entity to be re-structured and sold off. Most other facilities will be folded into a new company to be owned by Weglokoks SA, the country’s state-owned coal trader, and potentially by state-con-trolled utilities. Miners within four years of retirement will be offered paid leave while others will either keep their jobs or be transferred to different mines.

“In the end Kopacz didn’t solve the coal industry’s cash flow problem at all,” said Otilia Dhand, an analyst at political risk adviser Teneo Intelligence in Brussels. “She just shifted it from one pocket to another.”

Dhand says Kopacz’s failure to en-act her original plan showed weak-ness that has further emboldened the unions. Less than two weeks after the Kompania Weglowa crisis, miners at state-controlled coking coal producer Jastrzebska Spolka Weglowa SA clashed with police during a tense 17-day strike. With the labor strife costing Jastrzebska 27 million zlotys a day in lost sales, the company’s chief executive resigned in exchange for a minor reduction in benefits agreed to by the unions. A Jastrzebska spokes-woman says the company’s mines have returned to normal output.

At Kompania Weglowa’s head-quarters, a hulking, four-story pre-war building in the industrial city of Katowice, Chief Executive Officer Krzysztof Sedzikowski says he believes the company can be made profitable. A push to mine more coking coal used by smelt-ers rather than lower-quality fuel burned in power plants could ease overproduction, while costs

Coal prices have dropped more than 20% in the last six months, driven by lower oil and gas prices, and lower global demand.

Briquette Mountains Outside Skupin’s office in the town of Ruda Slaska, the smell of burning coal lingers in the air and black-faced miners in heavy boots and headlamps file out after their shifts. The town, with a history of mining that dates to the 13th century, is sur-rounded by mountains of shiny bri-quettes that few want to buy. While Poland’s utilities burned 57 million tons of coal last year, the country’s mines produced 69 million tons, the economy ministry estimates, and industry executives say imports may have reached 12 million tons.

A compact man with a trim mustache, Skupin slaps his hand on a Formica-topped table to vent his anger at the suggestion that job cuts may be unavoidable, and says he considers the government an enemy, not a negotiation partner. He suggests Kompania Weglowa, Pokoj’s owner, increase produc-tion despite the glut because “at least we’ll sell more coal and solve our cash-flow problem.”

Such intransigence has hobbled efforts by Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz to keep mining companies afloat. The two sides clashed in January after her centrist gov-ernment introduced a plan to bolster the finances of Kompania Weglowa, which was running out of cash to pay wages.

The initiative would have shut four of Kompania Weglowa’s 14 mines, eliminating almost 5,000 jobs. If voters expected Kopacz, a bespectacled former pediatrician, to morph into a second Margaret Thatcher, they were disappointed. With elections for president in May and for parliament in the fall, Kopacz couldn’t afford a general strike and gave in to virtually all of the unions’ demands.

For decades, Polish coal miners

have enjoyed benefits that are

the envy of their working class

countrymen:

An annual bonus of two months’ pay regardless of performance, compa-ny-sponsored holidays, retirement before 50, and no weekend shifts. Today, that legacy of the communist era threatens the mostly state-owned mining sector and is digging a hole in the national budget.

To understand why reform remains elusive, take a drive through Upper Silesia, the coal-rich region in southern Poland that’s home to two dozen mines. The snowy countryside, drained of color in the feeble winter light, is framed by smoking chimney stacks and elevator towers that haul coal up from the pits.

Even as European coal prices have fallen by half in recent years and producers have struggled, powerful unions have foiled government attempts to close failing operations, cut jobs, and restore the sector to profitability. In January, the Economy Ministry cautioned that without significant restructuring Kompania Weglowa SA -- the European Union’s largest coal producer -- risked bankruptcy.

With their historical ties to Lech Walesa’s Solidarity, Poland’s roughly 100,000 miners are cling-ing to their jobs. Their unions’ links to the 1980’s movement mean they can easily forge alliances across the political spectrum -- and threaten any reform-minded gov-ernment with widespread strikes.

“We’re absolutely against any solution that would involve shut-ting down mines and cutting jobs,” said Przemyslaw Skupin, a union leader at the Pokoj mine, an unprofitable operation in the town of Ruda Slaska that was slated for closure in a restructuring plan the government proposed in January.

Energy

Coal miners clash

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Polenergia orders 48 MW of Vestas wind turbinesDanish firm Vestas Wind Systems A/S announced in late February that it will deliver 48 MW of wind turbines to Polish energy company Polenergia SA for a project in the western part of the country.

The wind turbine manufacturer has won a contract to supply, install and commission 24 of the V110-2.0 MW machines for the Mycielin wind project. It comes with a VestasOnline Business SCADA solution and a five-year service agreement. Deliveries are expected in the third quarter of 2015, while the commissioning of the Mycielin wind farm is scheduled for the final quarter of the year.

To date, Vestas Poland has supplied some 570 wind turbines with a com-bined capacity of about 1,200 MW to the Polish market. The firm’s share of the total local installations exceeds 30%.

IKEA acquires new wind energy projects in PolandThe IKEA has acquired a new wind energy project near the village of Wroblew in Poland. Additionally, the firm has committed to acquire two more wind farms in the cities of Gizalki and Lubartow, with an aim to become energy independent by the end of 2015.

According to company sources, these three new wind farms will to-gether produce an estimated annual total of 339 GWh of wind energy. In 2011 IKEA bought three wind farms in Podkarpacie region (in Rymanów, Bukowsko and Leki Dukielskie), which produce a total of 134 GWh of energy annually.

Considering the entire acquisi-tions, IKEA will own six new wind energy projects by the end of the year, which will generate nearly 473 GWh of electricity annually.

The six projects combined are enough to provide clean energy for powering roughly 225,000 homes in Poland. Moreover, the wind projects will be supported by biomass boil-ers at the company’s factories.

The company now owns and operates 314 wind turbines and 700,000 solar panels around the world. IKEA aims to receive 100 percent of its energy needs through renewable sources by 2020. n

“We were up against the wall,” said Dariusz Dudek, a three-decade veteran of the mine who heads its Solidarity union chap-ter. “The prospect of bankruptcy changes your perspective.”

Their flexibility paid off, and a Czech company called EP Holding bought PG Silesia. When the new owners took over, some work-ers balked at weekend shifts and others left because they didn’t like having their pay tied to output. But those who remained soon grew accustomed to the new condi-tions, he said, and the mine has more than doubled its workforce to almost 1,800. PG Silesia is on track to turn a profit this year.

“The problem is only in people’s heads; they just don’t like change,” Dudek said. “We were flex-ible in our approach to benefits, we found a common language with our owner, and thanks to that we’re still in business.”

Source: Bloomberg

could be trimmed by introduc-ing a six-day working week.

Head Problems Unions can be brought around if management makes a sufficiently compelling case for change, said Sedzikowski, who took over the company in December after earlier helping the government revamp loss-making LOT Polish airlines.

“It’s very easy to say, ‘I can’t do anything because of the unions,’” Sedzikowski said. “The unions are very strong, but if they see specific arguments and if you take a tough position, they’ll show some understanding.”

About 50 kilometers to the south, a mid-sized mine called PG Silesia offers evidence that supports Sedzikowski’s optimism. In 2010, as Kompania Weglowa was seeking to sell the failing operation, miners there gave up many of their benefits in order to attract a foreign investor.

Energy

ASX-listed Balamara Resources in late February reported that the prefeasibility study (PFS) into its Mariola thermal coal project in Poland had demonstrated robust economics.

Based on a maiden reserve of 39.5-million tonnes, the project was expected to produce some 2.7-million tonnes a year over a mine life of 15 years. The project would require a capital invest-ment of $79 million, and would deliver an after tax net pres-ent value of $312.7 million.

Over the planned mine life, the project was expected to deliver a cumulative free-cash flow of A$1.13billion.

“This is a tremendous result for our shareholders, which clearly demonstrates the world-class nature of the Mariola asset and vindicates our decision to acquire 100% ownership of this project,” said Balamara MD Mike Ralston.

He noted that the PFS exceeded the company’s expectations in nearly every respect, and demon-strated exceptional returns from

the Tier 1 asset, with the potential to underpin a robust, long-life un-derground coal mining operation.

“This supports Balamara’s aggressive development strat-egy within the strong Polish coal sector. We are commit-ted to transforming Balamara into a coal producer in the near terms, and Mariola presents the first phase of this initiative.”

With the PFS now completed, Balamara would move ahead with a definitive feasibility study.

In separate news, the com-pany would also be undergoing all necessary permitting to bring the Mariola project into production over the next 12 to 18 months, or before the end of 2016. Balamara is fast-tracking a work program to bring its flagship Nowa Ruda coking coal project in Poland into production, expected by the end of 2016. A significant amount of work is underway with two drill rigs operating, an initial coal resource estimate in preparation and pre-feasibility studies well advanced. n

Australian Balamara bullish on Polish coal

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and more importantly it’s had a big impact on the legal and political life because Poland had to meet the legal and societal requirements set by the EU. There are an incredible number of companies in Poland that are exporting products to Germany and other countries in Europe; EU membership offers free access to all European markets and it goes in both directions.

What is your view on the pension reform imple-mented earlier this year, and in your opinion what potential impact could this have?

In our view, the move by Poland is symptomatic of moves by other governments in Central and Eastern Europe that have been trying to avoid deeper economic reforms in the interest of short-term political objectives.The worry is that by scaling back private pension systems, in the future, an aging population will require and demand larger and larger government

In this exclusive interview with BizPoland Magazine,

Mark Mobius, Executive Chairman of Templeton

Emerging Markets Group, chastises the government

for last year’s pension “reform” but explains why he

remains optimistic on Poland.

What is your outlook, broadly speaking, for the Polish equity market in 2015?

Recently, the Polish market has been fluctuating in a rather narrow band which is different from the 31% drop between the 2011 and 2012 highs and lows. We can look forward to a weaker market at the beginning of 2015 but then a recovery. Our out-look for the whole of 2015, therefore, is positive.

What sectors do you find appealing at the moment in the market, and where do you currently see in-vestment opportunity in the market?

Continued, sustained economic growth and devel-opment has meant the rise of the Polish consumer over the last two decades. Today, the average Polish consumer is getting wealthier, has access to banks and credit and is spending considerably more compared to even five or six years ago. This proliferation of purchasing power makes the con-sumer sector a very high potential one.Indeed, we think a big surge in consumer spend-ing has been very important in boosting Poland’s economy in recent years, as consumer spending accounts for a much larger part of the country’s GDP than it does in Hungary or the Czech Republic, for example. A number of post-Communist-era reforms, particularly the privatization of state-owned compa-nies, resulted in the development of a vibrant capital market, chiefly important for equity investors like us interested in an active stock market.

How would you rate Poland’s position in Europe?Situated in the heart of Europe between Russia and Western Europe, Poland is strategically well-positioned. With a population of 38 million, the country has a large consumer market and a strong workforce. Its border with Germany is an advantage, in our view, since Germany is a major importer and is Poland’s largest trading partner, accounting for more than a quarter of Poland’s exports and imports. With a well-educated workforce, Poland now successfully competes in outsourcing of business services with countries like India. Moreover, the country is benefiting from the continued relocation of factories from Western Europe to Eastern Europe.Poland’s entry into the EU in 2004 has had a big impact on the economic life of people in Poland

Equities – Interview

Mark Mobius of Templeton Emerging Markets Group keen on Poland

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markets during 2015 is expected to be comfortably in excess of that achieved by developed markets, with China and India likely to drive the Asian region to particularly strong growth. Moreover, many emerging markets, among them China, India, Indonesia, Mexico and South Korea, have an-nounced or embarked upon significant reform mea-sures that differ in details but are generally aimed at sweeping away bureaucratic barriers to economic growth, encouraging entrepreneurship and expos-ing inefficient industries to market discipline. Most are also looking to re-balance economic activity away from export- and investment-heavy models to become more oriented toward consumer demand.

Do you expect a strong negative reaction to Fed policy from emerging markets in 2015 as it seeks to raise interest rates?

With regard to developed-market monetary ma-neuvers, it is important to note that many major developed countries are still loosening policy, with Japanese quantitative easing likely to be highly significant for Southeast Asia. Recently, exceptional levels of money creation have remained largely outside real economies as the velocity of money has slowed sharply, evidenced by the declining loan-to-deposit ratios of banks in the US, Europe, Japan and China. As banks become more confident and resume lending activity, stocks of newly created money could begin to influence the real global economy. n

support. By stunting the growth of capital markets, which drive investment and economic growth, the economy could suffer, leading to recessions in times of global economic crisis. I think Poland, as one of the largest countries in Central/Eastern Europe, has not set a good example in this regard. Although I have criticized the bond seizure plan, I have kept my faith in the Polish market—and still do. I think as retirement payments grow and become an increasing burden on the government budget, the pressure will grow to return to private pension schemes.

Further afield, what is your view of the CEE region vis-a-vis the Russia and Ukraine situation?

The countries in Central and Eastern Europe are expected to value their membership in the European Union more highly going forward, and will try to better utilize their resources to ensure a stronger posture toward Russia. Of course, there may be some exceptions of a few “Euroskeptics”, but the general trend will be towards a strong European posture, which should be good for the economies of Central and Eastern Europe.

In terms of the wider emerging markets grouping, where you currently seeing the best opportunities?

High economic growth rates will remain a key at-traction of many emerging markets this year, in our opinion. Even with major economies like Brazil and Russia slowing down, overall growth in emerging

Equities – Interview

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www.bizpoland.plFDI Investment News

Tenders in for 70 Military Helicopters Contrary to the end-of-year rumblings that Sikorsky would withdraw its bid for the Polish military’s requirement for 70 medium-lift utility helicopters, when the announcement of the bidders was made by the Polish Armament Inspectorate on Dec. 30, 2014, Sikorsky’s name was pres-ent through subsidiary PZL Mielec, alongside Airbus Helicopters/Heli Invest and AgustaWestland subsid-iary PZL Swidnik.

The three competing aircraft being offered are Sikorsky’s S-70i, which is already being produced in Poland and exported inter-nationally, Airbus Helicopters’ EC725 Caracal-Polska and the AgustaWestland AW149.

Sikorsky’s potential exit from the helicopter competition came in a statement from the company at the end of October, which asserted that it would “not submit an offer for the procurement of utility helicop-ters for the Polish Armed Forces unless the terms of the procedure are amended.” This was met by a counter-statement from the Polish Ministry of National Defense declaring that all parties were clear on the final requirements of the tender and that it saw Sikorsky’s stance as “negotiation tactics.”

According to the Polish Ministry of Defense, the Commission will now review the proposals and a team from the Ministry of Economy will begin negotiations to establish the breadth of offset work to which each bidder will com-mit. The selection of a winner is expected in the second half of 2015.

The successful type chosen will replace the Army’s current Mil Mi-8/Mi-17 Hip and Mil Mi-14 Haze helicopters, of which Poland currently has around 40 and 10, respectively. They will perform a variety of utility tasks across all of the Polish Armed Forces including transport (48), combat search and rescue (CSAR) (16) and anti-sub-marine warfare (six) for the Navy.

Last year, Poland revealed that it would be increasing its military spending to $47.7 billion (€31.5 billion) between 2015 and 2022 to modernize its military, which largely meant replacing older Soviet-era equipment. The utility helicopter purchase would take around 10 percent of that total.

Russia’s intervention in Ukraine made it look closely at its priorities for this, and the need to replace its old Mi-24 attack helicop-ters was brought forward. The prospective new Kruk (Raven) tender would be for around 32 new attack helicopters, with the Boeing AH-64E, AgustaWestland

AW129 Mangusta and Airbus Helicopters EC665 Tiger thought to be the potential front-runners.

The Polish Security Bureau’s White Book, published in 2013, which examined the national secu-rity requirements of Poland, urged the need for airborne observation and surveillance coupled to target acquisition. There is a natural fear of surprise attack (largely due to its experience of such from Germany and Russia at the beginning of World War II), and the need to be able to counter these “through the maximum mobility of land forces.” This should be “primarily based on the use of helicopters.” n

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“Our business is well positioned for continued positive development in our home markets. Not least our out-sourcing assignments have taught us to quickly reproduce our concept for new large customers, in new areas of competence in new locations. Thus, we are well prepared to take this step outside the Nordic region”, says Zoran Covic. The Polish operations will be conducted through a wholly owned subsidiary. The establishment is covered by the existing business development budget in 2015. n

will establish a strong presence with an experienced and knowledgeable team in place in Warsaw”, said Zoran Covic, president and CEO of eWork.

Warsaw will be eWork’s first office outside the Nordic coun-tries. eWork has successfully established several local offices, not only in the Nordic capitals, but also in various locations in Sweden. As late as 2014, an office was opened in Västerås in connec-tion to eWork signing a contract for consultancy needs to ABB.

eWork’s Board of Directors has resolved to establish operations in Poland. The objective is to meet a growing demand for consultants in Poland, both from existing Nordic customers and from the local mar-ket. Operations will be conducted in a separate subsidiary with an office in Warsaw and are expected to com-mence in the second quarter of 2015.

“This is an attractive business opportunity for us. We already have several existing customers who have shown great interest, now that we

FDI Investment News

eWork Scandinavia sets up operations in Poland

Poland signs agreement for World Exposition in Milan, EXPO 2015.The celebration of Polish - Italian agreement held on 31 March in Milan was attended by the Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Economy and the head of the Polish interdepartmental team for EXPO 2015 – Minister Dariusz Bogdan and Commissioner General of Polish Section Expo and President of the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (PAIiIZ) – Sławomir Majman.

“We have made another important step bringing us closer to Expo 2015”, said the Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Economy, Dariusz Bogdan, head of the Polish interde-partmental team for EXPO 2015.

“The agreement signed today guarantees Poland the location on

a site of 2,400 sq m,” the Deputy Minister stressed. The agreement with Italy gave Poland a prestigious location on which the National Pavilion will sit. The site is located in the heart of EXPO exposition area near the Italian Pavilion and in the immediate vicinity of the French, German, British, Spanish or Hungarian sites.

The Deputy Minister also said that a competition for the architec-tural concept of the Polish Pavilion and the accompanying arrangement of the adjacent area will be pub-lished shortly. – We are coming to a close with our work on the schedule of events accompanying Expo – the Deputy Minister stressed.

“We shall soon begin Poland’s 1840-day promotional marathon

for Expo 2015. We want Poland to have the most Italian-style pavilion among all expositions, besides naturally the Italian Pavilion”, Minister Dariusz Bogdan announced. In his statement, the Minister pointed to many com-mon elements between Poland and Italy such as export success of the main industries of both countries, which are farming and food, and attachment to tradition, love for home cuisine and a feast gathering all at the family table.

“The signature of the agreement by Poland for is another step forward in the success of Expo 2015, and Poland’s presence means no boredom at the Milan EXPO”, Italian Commis-sioner General, EXPO 2015, Giuseppe Sala said. n

Contest for the store operator at EXPO 2015

MTU Aero Engines in Aviation Valley gets bigger

PARP - the organiser of the Polish National Stand at EXPO 2015 in Milan - announced a contest for the operator of the store at the Polish Pavilion during EXPO 2015 and Polish on-line shop dedicated to the event. The winner of the contests

will be responsible for the complex organisation and management of the store at the Polish Pavilion, that will offer high quality Polish food products for all visitors.

The store will be operating from 1 May to 31 October 2015.

Moreover, the store operator will be also responsible for designing, creating and man-agement in three languages: Polish, English and Italian of the on-line shop with Polish products. n

Affiliate of MTU Aero Engines from Germany, expands its branch in Poland. On 27 February the company officially opened its new 10,000 sq meter production facility in Rzeszów. The new investment increases the built-up area of the

company’s branch in Rzeszów by 50 percent. MTU is laying the foundation for the production and volume ramp-up for the new engine programmes.

For the game-changing PW1000G family of geared

turbofan engines, which will power the Airbus A320neo and other aircraft, the Rzeszów facility will produce components and perform preparatory work. The total invest-ment of the project amounts to some €40 million. n

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Polish farmers to continue protests against new land sale lawsPolish farmers attempted to initiate a series of blockades in the country’s capital, in protest over the govern-ment’s new laws regarding the sale of agricultural land. While the farmers could not take their protest directly into the city center as they had not received official permission from the police, hundreds still blockaded roads in the surrounding suburbs, some driving tractors and other farm vehicles.

A row has erupted following the government’s introduction of new regulations concerning the sale of farming landing that now allows corporations the right to buy up large swathes, which some say, will threaten the small-scale farming, ag-ricultural enterprise and lead to large land grabs by foreign investment.

Speaking to www.freshfruit-portal.com, spokesperson for the International Coalition for the Protection of the Polish Countryside (ICPPC) Joanna Bojczewska explains the demands of protes-tors who, she says, have so far been ignored by Polish agricul-tural minister Marek Sawicki.

There are four key issues with the main bone of contention relat-ing to the potential for land grab-bing and the consequent damage that would have on fresh produce sectors and other farming sectors like the meat industry, she said.

“The core of the protest is about preventing the sale of Polish agricultural land that might hap-pen from 2016 if the current law continues. This will expose Polish land to be bought by foreign buyers and will threaten small farmers with western capital coming in and land grabs which are already happening in the northwest region of Pomerania,” she said.

“Another issue concerning land is around the inheritance of leased land. At the moment farm-ers can have very long-term leases of agricultural land which can be inherited by their children. The new law, from 2016, will threaten this system as well and anyone will be able to lease the land with a higher negotiating power.

“Another major issue in Poland currently is that small farmers

are prohibited from the direct sale of their own farm-processed produce. That means even if they pack some carrots in a bag, that’s classified as a processed product. In Poland farmers are penal-ized and prosecuted for this.”

Bojczewska says this ‘inhibits small-scale enterprise’ because a farm needs to have a completely separate building where so-called ‘processing’ takes place, whereas many farming sectors have, up until now, been doing this kind of work in ‘their own kitchens’.

“They farmers can sell loose carrots directly for example but any form of processing methods or packaging is prohibited.”

The fourth issue relates to the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops, including the trading of GM seeds.

“This is a controversial issue for many Polish farmers who do not want GM crops grown in Poland at all and at any point,” Bojczewska said.

“All of these issues and the govern-ment altering the regulations have come about as a result of Poland’s full transition into the European Union.

“So far the farmers have been pretty unsuccessful in getting the leaders of the protest to talk to the minister and this protest was altered at the last-minute because

the application for a legal dem-onstration was rejected on the grounds that it came in too late.”

More blockades are planned over the coming weeks, and an official application is going into Polish authorities for a protest camp outside governmental build-ings in Warsaw where protestors plan to gather for several days.

“The key figures of government have not met with the protest com-mittee and leaders so they are not really properly responding to the calls. In fact, they are more con-cerned with articulating that farmers are breaching traffic laws or the fact they don’t have the correct insurance to be on the roads,” Bojczewska said.

“So it’s been really hard to gauge what the government’s comments are on these issues, because they are not engaging with the protestors.

“Even before Poland’s introduction to the EU, there has been a massive reduction of small family farms because of the corporate takeover of food distribution chains. Issues have been escalating for some time. Polish farmers are not treated as produc-ers; they are treated as suppliers of raw material which means that they are very limited to make their livelihoods better by adding value to their products. The problems are systemic.” n

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could help in the modernisation of the industrial sector. In July 2014, a Japanese company Mitsiu and Kompania Węglowa jointly launched the construction of the power station Czeczott. Other areas with potential do develop business relationships are agri-food and chemical sectors, as well as finance and business services.

As President Komorowski emphasized, the purpose of the visit is to announce the strategic partnership between Poland and Japan. On February 27, president officially opened the Polish-Japanese Economic Forum where over 250 Japanese entrepreneurs participated. n

The official visit of President of Poland Bronisław Komorowski in Japan took place in late February. The mission includes government administration and 50 representa-tives of Polish business. On the first day of the visit a business seminar on Polish-Japanese economic relations was held in Tokio. The meeting, co-organised by PAIiIZ, was moderated by president Sławomir Majman.

“We should aim to diversify Japanese investments in Poland which now focus in the automo-tive and electronics industry” said president Majman. Among the fields of possible Polish-Japanese cooperation there is clean coal technologies and energy which

FDI Investment News

Linklaters relocates finance support roles to WarsawFirm to focus finance support in Warsaw as roles transition across from Colchester centre. Linklaters has relocated 10 finance support jobs to its lower-cost services base in Warsaw as it seeks to build up the centre to replace an outsourcing contract terminated last year. Ten support positions across its London and Colchester back office teams are in the process of being trans-ferred to Warsaw.

AkzoNobel Extends IT Services Deal With Infosys BPO IT services major Infosys said paints and coatings maker AkzoNobel has extended partnership with its sub-sidiary Infosys BPO.

It was originally selected by AkzoNobel to accelerate the com-pany’s finance transformation pro-gramme and streamline operations for its Decorative Paints business in over 30 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Infosys said in a statement.

As part of the deal extension now, the transformation pro-gramme has been extended across AkzoNobel’s Performance Coating business in Europe and North America as well, it added.

Infosys BPO will deliver finance and accounting services out of its global delivery centres in Poland and India, in English, Spanish and several other European languages, it said.

The subsidiary will partner with AkzoNobel to set up a finance ser-vices organisation by consolidating work from seven business groups across 55 locations, it added.

The deal extension involves stan-dardisation and outsourcing of the transactional accounting organisa-tion for the Performance Coating business of AkzoNobel.

New investment in Pomorska SEZPlastiko received business permit from Pomorska Special Economic Zone. Under the investment, the company will buy and implement a production line. The total value of investment reached €20m. 30 new jobs are expected to be created. n

Polish President on business mission to Japan

S3 - The Route linking Sweden to Greece via PolandOn 19 February, in the presence of deputy minister Ilona Antoniszyn - Klik, PAIiIZ president Sławomir Majman, president of Legnica SEZ Rafał Jurkowlaniec and marshal of Dolnośląskie prov-ince, Cezary Przybylski held the ceremony of signing the agree-ment on establishing joint project entitled S3 - Droga Wielkich Możliwości. (S3 - The Route of Great Opportunities).

The S3 route will be a part of the European route E65 starting in Malmö, Sweden and finishing in Chaniá, Greece. The Polish S3 will link the south of Scandinavia with the north of the Czech Republic

including Hradec Kralovei Pardubice and Prague. The project has been designed as an invest-ment activator of the area along the S3 route. A complex offer for both types of investors: big foreign companies as well as local SMEs interested in investing there will be prepared. Also authorities of Dolny Śląsk province will super-vise the provision of workforce for investors who will enter this area.The agreement was signed by: the Ministry of Economy, PAIiIZ, Legnica SEZ, Kostrzyńsko-Słubicka SEZ, Pomorska SEZ, Wałbrzyska SEZ „INVEST-PARK” and Kamiennogórska SEZ. n

The Management Board of Kamiennogórska SEZ issued its first business permit for 2015. It went to Kosikowski & Kresky. The total value of the investment is PLN 9m. Under the invest-ment, the company will buy real estate that it is now rented in Lubań sub-zone. The investor plans to build production and office facilities and buy a modern machine park. The location was chosen due to the access to highly skilled workforce experienced in

production of advanced machin-ery, in Lubań.

Kosikowski & Kresky spe-cializes in the production of wet chemistry machines and slot machines. Over 90% of company’s production is ex-ported. The investor is also providing R&D activity. The total number of employees in the company should reach 60. Kamiennogórska SEZ has already issued 115 investment business permits. n

New PLN 9 million investment in machine factory

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Delegation from Shandon China visits PolandPAIiIZ president Sławomir Majman hosted the delegation from the province of Shandon and the city of Yantai to talk about the investment opportunities. The discussion also focused on how to increase business relation between Poland and China.

During the meeting Mr Majman encouraged guests to locate invest-ments in Poland. On the other hand, the Chinese declared their interest regarding agri-food sector, electron-ics and domestic appliances sec-tors. Currently, PAIiIZ supports 6 Chinese investment project with a total value reaching €52m that in the future can generate over 800 new jobs.

Shandon is the third most devel-oped province of China. The econo-my of the region bases on heavy in-dustry including mining as well as on production of vegetables.

Two investments in the Kraków SEZKraków Technology Park issued the first permits in 2015. They were given to Nidec Motors & Actuators and Grape Up.

Reinvestment of Japanese company Nidec Motors & Actuators will be based on the expansion of the existing plant and equipping it with new produc-tion lines. The value of the investment is PLN 15M. 15 new jobs will be created. Grape Up, a company providing IT ser-vices plans is to hire 80 employees. The value of the project is PLN 864,000.

Tarnobrzeg SEZ expands its territoryAt the beginning of February, the Council of Ministers adopted an Act extending the Tarnobrzeg Special Economic Zone. Due to that, new investors can oper-ate in the zone. TSEZ will be extended by 43.7 hectares to reach 1,721 hectares. Basing on the average results obtained in the zone in 2013, it is estimated that due

to the extension of TSEZ about 1,636 new jobs can be created and nearly PLN 457m will be invested.

IVENA LOG in Słupsk SEZIVENA LOG is planning to create a new Logistic Centre in Słupsk Special Econimic Zone to provide outsourc-ing services there. The total budget of the new investment reached €14m. The company will also create 12 new jobs.

LUG Light Factory in Lubuski Tech ParkIn Lubuski Industrial and Technology Park, the construction of a new manufactur-ing plant of LUG Light company has just started. The new plant will produce high-tech lighting equipment made in LED technology. LUG specializes mainly in the production of industrial and decorative lighting for internal and external use. The company develops and sells its products in Poland and around the world. n

Samsung Electronics launches first appliances factory in EU – in Poland

In the presence of deputy minister Ilona Antoniszyn-Klik, authori-ties from Śląsk and Małopolska presented a number of solutions and proposals regarding activa-tion of both provinces that will be added to the governmental programme of reindustrialisa-tion of Śląsk and Małopolska. The presentation took place on 11 February in Bytom.

“Balance, revitalization, high technology and opening for new SMEs in these provinces is what we want to achieve”, said deputy min-ister of economy, Ilona Antoniszyn-Klik. “We test and implement new

technologies. Here one can notice a rapid growth of business services sector, for example IBM has located its centre in Śląsk”, said marshal of Śląsk, Wojciech Saługa, mention-ing the advantages of the region. “Chemical processing of coal, clean technologies, revitalization of degraded land, vocational education tailored to business needs - these are challenges for the region”, he added. “Depopulation is our main problem. We estimate that in 2050 there will be about 28% less population than today” he said.

Also marshal of Małopolska Jerzy Miller presented his plans

for developing the western part of Małopolska. “The implementa-tion of the re-industrialisation in both regions needs a support of large companies”, he argued. He also stressed that support-ing R&D and creating common market of science and industry are one of the biggest economic challenges for the region.

A special project entitled “4 Silesia (4S)” based on the activation of investments in areas owned by municipalities and located along the four expressways - A1, DTS, S1 and S69 - has been prepared by Katowice Special Economic Zone. n

Samsung Electronics held the cer-emony to launch a new production line. “This is 250 new jobs”, com-mented PAIiIZ president Sławomir Majman. The project focuses on the increase of production capac-ity and expanding the range of washing machines and refrigera-tors that will be manufactured in Wronki by 2016. The investment will deliver more than 250 new jobs to the company and about 60 new jobs to the company’s suppliers.

The project received a grant from the programme of supporting the investments of significant impor-tance for Polish economy.

Guests that attended the opening ceremony also visited School No. 1 in Wronki, where Samsung has created a special science centre for students. Due to that, young people can pre-pare for the demands of em-ployer in terms of know- how of the latest technologies.

“This project is an excellent exam-ple of cooperation on dual education system between local government, local education centre and business”, commented deputy prime minister, Janusz Piechociński. After the course the best students may be invited to apprenticeships at the R&D Centre in Samsung’s plant. For Samsung, the factory in Wronki is the first com-pany’s investment in household ap-pliances production in the European Union. n

New programme for Śląsk and Małopolska to attract investors

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In September passenger trains will start operating on the newly built (the first in Poland after 1989) 18 km-long Kolej Kokoszkowska railway line. It will link Gdańsk Wrzeszcz sta-tion with Lech Wałęsa international

airport and Gdynia with the south-ern and western regions of the Pomeranian voivodeship.

Pomorska Kolej Metropolitalna S.A. – a company acting on behalf of the Pomeranian voivodeship – is the investor responsible for delivering this infrastructure. New trains have been ordered to operate on the new line.

The total cost of the investment is in excess of PLN 1 billion and is the largest investment being made by the Pomeranian voivodeship. Rail transport is of key importance in the wider Tri-City metropolitan area. Together with the moderni-sation projects of Szybka Kolej Miejska (SKM), which transports more than 34 million passengers annually, this mean of transport is gaining in importance even more.

New infrastructure will be a significant growth-driver not only for Gdańsk and Lech Wałęsa inter-national airport (which is planning a new Airport City project), but also for the southern and western parts of the Pomeranian voivode-ship. The regional authorities intend to fully integrate the new line with the existing road and rail infrastructure of the cities it will go through. Gdańsk may serve as an example of such an approach, where tram infrastructure is being integrated with the Pomeranian Metropolitan Railway (PKM).

The Tri-City is currently one of the largest construction sites in Poland. In addition to the ongoing Pomeranian Metropolitan Railway project, the key investment projects in the region include:

Gdańsk/GdyniaRailway line to link region

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European Regional Development Fund within the Infrastructure and Environment Programme. The ESC, located next to Gdańsk shipyard, has, due to its extraordi-nary design, become an important

historical and architectural symbol of the city. Moreover it is an interesting point on the landscape of the Tri-City area.

The Museum of the Second

World War in Gdańsk. The idea for this museum came to life in 2008. The mission of the museum is for it to become an important institution that will show the wartime experiences of both Poland and other European countries. The museum will be located next to Główne Miasto and the Radunia channel. Its completion is planned for 2016. The Emigration Museum will be located in the building of Dworzec Morski in the Port of Gdynia. It will focus on the history of the emigration from Poland and will combine exhibitional, educa-tional and artistic functions. It is planned for completion in May/June 2015. n

the Tri-City and the rest of the country, which is one of the priori-ties of the Development Strategy of the Pomeranian voivodeship.

SKM station Gdańsk Śródmieście is a project that start-ed in August 2013. The SKM rail line will be extended by 1 km and a new station, Gdańsk Śródmieście, will be added to the existing net-work. The station will be located

next to the Urząd Marszałkowski office and the planned Forum Radunia shopping centre. The project also involves the construc-tion of a new integrated transpor-tation hub. SKM Śródmieście is due to be completed in March 2015.

Other investment projects The Tri-City is an important historical and cultural location and therefore invests in a range of proj-ects in addition to infrastructural improvements. Those projects refer to local history and genius loci and thus enrich the TriCity’s tourist and cultural attractiveness.

The European Solidarity Centre in Gdańsk opened in August 2014. It was co-funded by the

The state-of-the-art Deepwater Container Terminal Gdańsk provides Pomerania with a direct connection with Asia through the Maersk Line service point. It is worth mentioning that the new terminal is able to handle the larg-est container ships with a capacity exceeding 18,000 TEU. In March 2013, Port of Gdańsk authorities and DCT signed an agreement to further extend the DCT capac-ity to 4 million TEU. In order to maintain its competitive edge, Gdynia port decided to improve its capacity and transport infra-structure. In January 2014, Port of Gdynia Authority SA. acquired the Gościnne quay from Naval Shipyard Gdynia Poland, which will allow the port to build a new 480 m-diameter turn-table. The next stage of the Gdynia port refurbishment is deep-ening the port channel by 2 m from 13.5 m to 15.5 m. All these planned improvements will allow Gdynia port to handle 380 m-long contain-er ships of up to 14,000 TEU capac-ity. The Tri-City’s accessibility from Poland’s hinterland has improved greatly as a result of the completion of the A1 motorway to Stryków and, more recently, as a result of the new Pendolino trains, which have been operating since 14 December 2014. The journey from Warsaw to the Tri-City takes approximately three hours and it is being operated by five trains which have a maximum speed of 200km/h.

The tunnel under the Martwa Wisła river will facilitate transpor-tation around Gdańsk city centre and improve the accessibility of the Wyspa Portowa island. It will not disturb the only water-way between the Motława river, Martwa Wisła and the open sea. The tunnel will also reduce transit traffic in Gdańsk city centre.

The Tri-City northern ring road. The northern by-pass is designed to redirect transit traffic from the centres of Reda, Rumia and Gdynia and to generate attractive invest-ment areas along the regional transportation corridors. The proj-ect will also improve the accessibil-ity of the north-western part of the Pomeranian voivodeship from

City Investment News

Gdańsk and Gdynia ports development

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which will treat flue gases of two OP130 and three OP230 steam boil-ers at a combined heat and power plant in Lodz. Station numbers K1, K2, K3, K6, K9 at Veolia Energia Lodz SA (CHP 3) project will be up-graded under the terms of the deal with completion of the desulphuri-sation plant due in early 2017.

‘The FGD plant, upon comple-tion, will enable us to continue the operation of all steam boilers of CHP 3 beyond 2016 and in the same time significantly reduce our environmental footprint in Lodz region,’ said Janusz Cieślakowski, Investment and Maintenance Director for Veolia Energia Łódź SA. n

construction of a complete Flue Gas Desulphurisation (FGD) plant,

Veolia and Alstom have signed a turnkey contract for the

City Investment News

ŁódźAirbus Helicopters opens new office in ŁódźIn mid-February Airbus Helicopters opened an office in Łódź where about 100 new employers will be hired. The investment was supported by PAIiIZ. This is the fourth office of Airbus in Europe; others are located in France, Germany and Spain. The Polish office will focus on development of R&D projects of the company as well as on designing new construc-tions and providing moderniza-tion of helicopters.

It is expected that graduates of Łódź University of Technology will be among employees of the company’s new office, as for nine years the University has been operating with Airbus. Moreover, a new faculty related to the aviation is to be opened there soon. Airbus and the French embassy will fund scholarships for students. n

FGD upgrade for Łódź cogeneration plant

Mecalit receives business permit to operate in Łódź SEZ

Mecalit Poland is a supplier of plastic components for home appliances industry. Under the new investment, the company

will expand the existing plant and spend at least PLN 12m for that purpose. Also 20 new jobs will be created by the investor. n

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Elettrostandard Polska, Wind Mobile and Pracownia Ślusarska Bartosz Wójcik - these three companies have received permits from the Kraków Technology Park to conduct business there.

Elettrostandard Polska will reinvest in Niepołomice. The company will expand its manufac-turing plant and the office space.

Total expenditures will reach PLN 13.5m. Wind Mobile operating in the telecommunications market, will create 40 new jobs and spend about PLN 1m on new investment. Manufacturer of gates and metal elements - Pracownia Ślusarska Bartosz Wójcik is to invest at least PLN 2.4m. n

ING Bank Śląski S.A. and ING Bank N.V. have jointly signed a EUR 193 million term loan facil-ity to refinance senior debt re-lated to the Bonarka City Center (BCC) shopping mall. The mall has been developed by TriGranit Development Corporation, one of the largest privately owned development corporations in Europe. The loan for Bonarka City Center was closed on 27th February.

Opened in 2009, with a total area of ca 92,500 sqm, BCC is the biggest shopping centre in Krakow. The shopping centre has long term tenant contracts in place and welcomed more than 13 million visitors in 2014, a 4.4% annual increase in visitor numbers. The success of the transaction demon-strates the project’s potential, the strength of the underlying assets, as well as TriGranit’s solid track record as a developer. n

Cisco continues to invest in the Global Services centre in Krakow, in its third year of expansion it now features a Network Operations Centre (NOC). Officially opened in May 2012 the Cisco Global Services Center in Krakow is poised to receive further investment in 2015. Located in Krakow’s Podgorze district it hosts a Telepresence room as well as offering services across multiple functional groups, including Consulting and Technical Services, Cloud and Managed Services, Finance, IT, and Global Business Services. Its regional coverage extends to Europe, Middle East, Africa and Russia.

In the last 30 months it has grown from 80 staff to over 500 and its success is owed in part to Polish Government backing, the growing Polish economy and well educated local graduates and employees who appear to be fully engaged. Cisco have now committed to further expan-sion including the addition of a Network Operations Center (NOC), one of three sites globally.

The NOC will be part of the Cisco Cloud and Managed Services organisation, its purpose being to monitor the status and con-dition of customers' networks and software infrastructures

and immediately respond to any detected issues. The other two NOC’s are located in India and the USA; the Krakow centre is strategically placed to allow a seamless 24/7 service to be offered to global customers. Although there is approximately only five hours difference between India and Poland, the coverage including the US means that the three NOC can cover the globe fairly easily.

Cisco are clearly happy to continue investing in Poland, said Olivier Kohler, Chief Administration Officer and Senior Vice President, Cisco Global Business Services. n

KrakówThree business permits in Krakow Tech Park

Cisco invests in Polish NOC

ING Bank arranges EUR 193 million refinancing for TriGranit’s Bonarka City Center

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NewVoiceMedia, a leading cloud contact centre vendor, is further-ing its commitment to driving innovation by opening a new European development centre in Poland. The office is located in the Hubska Center in Wroclaw, a city which has recently experienced significant growth in the IT ser-vices sector and is home to some of the world’s leading high-tech

businesses. Chosen for its ex-tremely strong talent pool, the hub is close to Wrocław University of Technology which ranks second among the best technical universi-ties in information technology and will provide a base for the compa-ny’s team of experts while offering capacity for substantial growth.

Recently ranked among the world’s top 50 cloud service

providers, NewVoiceMedia is out-pacing the rapidly expanding cloud contact centre market fivefold and has doubled its number of staff over the last year to meet in-creased demand for its technology. The centre will support this expan-sion, strengthen NewVoiceMedia’s presence in EMEA and offer the company an excellent facility in which to develop its portfolio. n

The City of Katowice is preparing to dip into public funds to build a new stadium for its struggling football club GKS Katowice and support its bid to return to the top division of the Polish league. The investment is estimated to be worth about PLN 100 million.

The new facility will have a capacity of 12,000 spectators, but with the capability to expand by a further 6,000 seats. The project

was unveiled by Katowice's municipal authorities at a recent meeting with representatives of the club's supporters' asso-ciation. This is only the latest initiative by the city to increase its support of the operations of GKS Katowice. Last year, the municipal authorities bought shares worth PLN 1.1 million in the club, making a total of PLN 2 million invested to date.

The funds were made available to enable the club to secure the required license to compete in this I Liga season, the second tier of Poland's professional football league. The money also enabled the club to pay off tax debt owed to social security institution ZUS as well as wages owed to former players. As a result of the financial difficulty, the league imposed a limit on players' salaries. n

Poland is to seek approval from the European Commission for its plan to extend state funding to some loss-making coal mines. The slump in coal prices, increase in production costs and sliding demand is affecting the financial health of the coal mines, according to Reuters.

Polish Minister in charge of restructuring the industry Wojciech Kowalczyk was quoted by PAP news agency as say-ing: “We declared that we will submit the notification appli-cation on the aid programme in February.” Kowalczyk had previously said that the country is optimistic about European Commission approval to the state aid proposal.

“Restructuring of the four failing mines is estimated to cost $624m, which could in-crease by 10% to 20%.”

With mounting losses, the country had planned to close some of the loss-making mines run by state-owned company Kompania Weglowa; however, the plan was dropped by the incumbent government following protest from mining workers.

According to EU state aid rules, Poland must gain approval from the European Commission to give state aid to the mines.

Restructuring of the four fail-ing mines is estimated to cost $624m, which could increase by 10% to 20% if the deal is final-ised with the mining unions.

Government data shows that Kompania Weglowa recorded losses of about €270m dur-ing the January to November 2014 period, and its liabilities have increased to about €1bn.

In January, Kompania Weglowa announced that it will cut jobs, close mines and receive financial support from state-owned power utilities following a rescue plan backed by the government.As part of the plans to close the four mines, one mine will be sold to coal trader Weglokoks and the remain-ing nine profitable facilities will be moved to a new holding company.

Weglokoks and state-owned power producers are currently in discussions about the sales of stakes in the new group. n

WrocławNewVoiceMedia opens cloud contact centre

KatowiceGKS Katowice lines up €24m stadium investment from city

Poland seeks EU approval to fund failing coal mines

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Global logistics property group Goodman has announced plan to develop a warehousing facility cov-ering an area of 16,000m² at the new Poznań Airport Logistics Centre in Poland. CD Partner, a Polish beverage wholesaler, will be the first customer at the new logistics centre, leasing 4,500m2 of warehouse and office space at the modern facility, with Goodman constructing the remaining 11,500m2 on a specula-tive basis. Delivery of the warehouse is planned for the second quarter of 2015.

As the first customer at the Goodman Poznan Airport Logistics Centre, CD Partner will lease 4,200 sqm of warehouse space and 300 sqm of office space at the facility. The com-pany will use the site as its new headquarters and will store and distribute a variety of bever-ages from this central location. Additionally, Goodman has provided its customer with ad-ditional parking spaces to accom-modate employees and clients.

“The contract with CD Partner allowed us to launch a new invest-ment in the Poznan market. We see a lot of potential in this region and that is why we decided to begin con-struction of the first building at the Poznan Airport Logistics Centre. In addition to our other Polish specu-lative developments in Gdansk, Wroclaw and Kraków, the new proj-ect in Poznan illustrates Goodman's strategy to execute strategic invest-ments in key logistics locations across Central and Eastern Europe,” explained Blazej Ciesielczak, Goodman Regional Director for Central and Eastern Europe.

CD Partner and future custom-ers of the ultra-modern facility also will benefit from Goodman's technical and operational property

services expertise and support. A key feature of this is Goodman's flagship property investment plan, a unique benefit Goodman pro-vides to its customers that ensures all properties are maintained to the highest market standards.

Burgeoning logistics locationGoodman Poznan Airport Logistics Centre, with a target lease area of 52,000 sqm, is located in close vicinity to Lawica Airport, with a direct connection to the A2 mo-torway via the S11 expressway connecting Poznan with Germany, Central Poland and Warsaw. At the logistics centre, Goodman offers

modern logistics space intended for warehousing or light production, which is available for immediate development.

“Poznan is one of the fastest growing markets on the Polish warehousing map. Increasing demand and a low vacancy rate is encouraging new invest-ment in the logistics real estate market, such as the Goodman Poznan Airport Logistics Centre. This is thanks to a strong local market, availabil-ity of a skilled workforce along with a well-developed road infrastructure,” said Urszula Rasmussen, Associate Partner, Head of Industrial at Sharman Church Chartered Surveyors, who advised on the transaction with CD Partner. n

All facilities at Poznan Airport Logistics Centre will be equipped with sustainability features, to help optimize customers' operational costs. For CD Partner in particular,

the warehouse will be divided into lighting zones to minimise energy usage. In the office area, light sen-sors will be installed to limit light usage to active areas. Additionally a

“Green Lease” clause will be signed with CD Partner, which includes a provision to reduce waste genera-tion and consumption of energy and water. n

PoznańGoodman to develop huge warehouse at Poznań airport

Sustainability solutions

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in a trade mission to Finland. Com-panies from Pomerania can submit applications for financial support for their participation. PAIiIZ took patronage over the mission.

IT business mission to FinlandBetween 20-24 April 2015, Po-meranian Regional Development Agency in Słupsk invites represen-tatives of IT sector is to take part

Chambers of Commerce News

Finland

Austria Austria Wine promotion

Portugal Portugese wines at Radisson SAS

The Austrian Wine Promotion Board hosted guests at the Hotel Sofitel Victoria, to promote Austria's wide range of quality wines.

Portugese wineries came to Warsaw to promote their fine wines to Poland’s F&B sectors.

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Electronic Manufacturers’’ Association (TEEMA)We invite you to contact our office

if your company intends to visit our trade show. We provide information that can help in the organization of travel and registration, which allows guest to receive free promotional materials and admission to the exhibition prior to the trade show. In addition, we encourage you to participate in a year-round program of Online Meetings (videoconferenc-es) with Taiwanese companies, we offer free assistance in finding suit-able business partners in Taiwan to meet your individual requirements.

Contact: Sandra Piotrowska; sandra@ttcw.it.pl, tel.(48-22) 288-82-00~01 n

tuning cars and relevant promo-tion activities. Show Dates: April 8 to 11, 2015Venue: Taipei World Trade Center

Nangang Exhibition Hall Gross Exhibit Space: 60,000 smNumber of Exhibitors: 1,500 ex-

hibitors / 4,000 booths Visitors: 50,868 professionalsExhibits Profile: Auto Parts, Auto

Accessories, Tuning & Restyling, Engine Parts, Chassis System

Automobile Frame and Parts, Repair & Maintenance

Automobile Electronic Components & Parts, Automobile Electronic Products

Organizer: Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) and Taiwan Electrical and

Asia’ s most professional and comprehensive auto show! On behalf of the organizers we have the pleasure to invite you to the 5-in-1 AMPA Show: Taipei AMPA, AutoTronics, Motorcycle Taiwan, EV Taiwan, and Tuning and Car Care Taiwan Show will be held together in Taipei from April 8 - 11, 2015. Boosting 4,000 booths and 8,000 professional buyers from 130 countries worldwide presents a wide range of exhibits and an ex-cellent procurement opportunity not to be missed. The organizer will also hold an award ceremony for innovative products during the opening of the show, one-on-one procurement meetings, various industry seminars, exhibitions for

ScandinaviaSPCC celebrated 10 years of trade and investments be-tween Scandinavia and Poland Last year was marked with the 10th anniversary of Scandinavian-Polish Chamber of Commerce with a record number of chamber rep-resentatives, corporate members and partners participating in the SPCC 10th Anniversary Debate. The event took place on December 4th at the Muranów Conference Center, unique, modern & presti-gious venue in Warsaw, with links to Polish-Nordic cooperation: designed by a Finnish architect - Rainer Mahlamaki, the Center operates with the support of the Norwegian grants.

The evening opened Carsten Nilsen, SPCC Chairman with comments on the strong ties Scandinavia has with Poland, the importance of the SPCC network and emphasizing the significant impact SPCC has had on Scandinavian–Polish business relations. He also gave his insights into the report “Scandinavian companies in the Polish landscape”

prepared along with PwC, which was officially announced that day and is summarizing the success of Scandinavian business in Poland & presents the biggest investments.

Anniversary Debate was attend-ed by Mr. Hallador Asgrimsson, Prime Minister of Iceland in 2004-2006 and the Secretary General of the Nordic Council in 2007. The Prime Minister focused on the process of trans-formation of the Polish economy, challenges of the EU member-ship in the current situation.

The evening was an excellent opportunity for a debate about the changes that have taken place in Poland over the last ten years, seen through the eyes of Scandinavian investors and what was their role in the process. The Anniversary Debate, led by the expert in Scandinavia related issues - Mr. Michal Kobosko, attended by Mrs. Evelyn Higler, CEO, IKEA Retail Poland, HE Hanna Lehtinen, Ambassador of Finland, Ms. Joanna Pakos, CFO, Member of the Board of Volvo Poland, Mr Per Hammarlund,

Chief Strategist, SEB EM, H.E. Staffan Herrstrom, Ambassador of Sweden, H. E. Steen Hommel, Ambassador of Denmark, H. E. Karsten Klepsvik, Ambassador of Norway, and Mr. Carsten Nielsen, SPCC Chairman, was an excellent opportunity to exchange experienc-es gathered by Scandinavian inves-tors over the last decade in Poland.

The cultural highlight of the evening was a piano recital by Leszek Możdżer, an outstanding pianist, composer and producer, who is widely considered to be the greatest revelation of the Polish jazz of the last decade and who has gathered an enthusiastic applause.

The SPCC 10th Anniversary Debate with the standing dinner reception at the end, was attended by over 300 invited guests, includ-ing ambassadors of the Nordic countries, presidents and directors of member companies, representa-tives of the Polish government and regional authorities, representatives of other bilateral chamber of com-merce, key business organizations and other prominent guests. n

Taiwan 2015 TAIPEI AMPA & AutoTronics Taipei

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Member; Marek Kapuscinski, Proct-er & Gamble, Member; John Lynch, Lynka, Member; Joseph Wancer, Bank BGZ, Member; Roman Rewald, Weil, Gotshal & Manges, Member. n

Paul Fogo, JF Legal, Treasurer; Magdalena Burnat-Mikosz, Deloitte, Member; Anna Jakubowski, Coca-Cola Company, Member; Jolanta Jaworska, IBM Poland and Baltics,

Tony Housh, APCO Worldwide, Chairman; Joanna Bensz, CH2M Hill, Vice-Chairman; Judith Gliniecki, CEE Equity Partners, Vice-Chairman; Richard Lada, Secretary;

Housh, Senior Counselor at APCO Worldwide has been elected as the Chairman. The Vice-Chairs are Judith Gliniecki, Partner at CEE Equity Partners and Joanna Bensz, Country Manager at CH2MHill. Treasurer is Paul Fogo, Managing Partner at JF Legal, and Secretary is Richard Lada. n

Highlights of the evening included an address by Ambassador Stephen Mull, a speech by Professor Leszek Balcerowicz, student essay contest winners, and the election of a new Board of Directors for the 2015- 2016 term. On January, 2015, new Officers were elected by the AmCham Board of Directors. Tony

On December 8, 2014, the American Chamber of Commerce in Poland held its Annual General Meeting & Christmas Reception at the Regent Hotel in Warsaw. The busi-ness part of the evening included the presentation of the Auditor’s Report and the Annual Report, approved by a quorum of members.

Chambers of Commerce News

United States

Vietnam

The new Officers of the AmCham Board

The full Board of Directors for the term 2015-2016:

The Ambassador of Vietnam hosted a small business delegation, to mark the commencement of flights to Vietnam via Doha and Qatar Airways.

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KDPW (securities clearing and custody) Awards:• DM BOS - the first participant

KDPW_CCP that fully imple-mented netting in securities

• X-Trade Brokers - provided the largest number of reports in 2014.

• Raiffeisen Bank International - foreign participant who first created and actively uses the omnibus account at KDPW.

• Alumetal SA for the highest value IPO in 2014.

• LOTOS SA for the highest value secondary listing in 2014.

• Trigon Brokerage House for the largest number of companies listed on the Main Market of shares in 2014.

• DMBH for the highest market-share in stock trading on the Main Market in 2014.

• INC SA for the largest num-ber of companies listed on NewConnect in 2014.

• mBank Brokerage House for the highest share in trading shares and allotment session on NewConnect (excluding market maker transactions) in 2014.

• BDM Brokerage House for the highest share in trading shares and allotment session on NewConnect in 2014.

Prizes were awarded in the follow-ing categories:

Special prizes were awarded to:• Katarzyna Kacperczyk,

Undersecretary of State for African, Asian and Middle Eastern policy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for the promotion of the Warsaw Stock Exchange abroad.

• PKO BP Brokerage house - Broker of the Year 2014

Awards in the “Equities” category: • Deutsche Bank for the highest

value of placed shares in 2014.• Banco Espirito Santo de

Investimento for the organiza-tion of initial public offerings with the highest total value in 2014.

Events

Polish capital market awards Held at the headquarters of the Warsaw Stock Exchange, the annual Gala attracted leading issuers,

exchange members, brokerages, and capital markets lawyers and advisers. A grand total of 30 awards

were handed out. Guest of honor at the event was Wojciech Kowalczyk, the Secretary of State of

Ministry of Treasury.

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• Bank Handlowy - leader of market-making on TreasuryBondSpot Poland in 2014.

Awards in the “derivatives” market:• mBank Brokerage House and BOS

Bank Brokerage for the highest volume in futures trading.

• BZ WBK for the highest market share (without options) as mar-ket maker in 2014.

• PKO BP Brokerage for the high-est market share (options) as market maker in 2014.

WSE data distribution awards:• Noble Securities SA, which is

the first to begin providing its clients with real-time data from TGE and BondSpot.

• PKO BP Bankowy PTE for pre-sentation of the widest range of WSE information products.

The organizer of the Gala was the Warsaw Stock Exchange and Gala partners were KDPW and BondSpot S.A. n

Awards in the “Debt” category:• PZU FINANCE AB for the high-

est value debut on the Catalyst bond market in 2014.

• mBank Brokerage House for the highest value of non-Treasury bonds trading on Catalyst.

• PKO BP SA brokerage house as best “market maker” in non-Treasury bonds on Catalyst.

• mBank for the highest value of Treasury debt instruments introduced on Catalyst.

• Noble Securities for the introduction of many series of corporate bonds on Catalyst.

• mBank mortgage for the highest activity on the mortgage bond market in 2014.

• Bank Pekao SA as underwriter for the highest value of out-standing bonds on the Catalyst market.

Awards BondSpot:• ING Bank for highest turn-

over in the cash market and for highest turnover in TreasuryBondSpot.

Events

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other expensive hobbies. I also spend money on clothes, mainly on suits, but that’s only about $25-35,000 a year. I don’t wear diamond necklaces or stuff like that.

What do you invest in?I’m not interested in high profits, but the stable and relatively sure ones. My investments are very diverse. It’s the stocks, obligations, land, real estate. I surround myself with specialists and counselors who know their way around various kinds of assets, but they also have a great knowl-

edge of economics.

Can you give an example of an in-vestment that you’ve come up with by yourself?Most of it is real estate. For ex-ample in Łódź.

Do you invest more in Poland or in the States?It’s quite even between the two countries, between different kinds of assets. Your portfolio has to be diversified, accordingly to the rule that you don’t put all your eggs into one basket. Thanks to that diver-sity I’m able to meet new people and develop on multiple grounds.

Do you invest on the Warsaw Stock Market, too?As of now, only on Wall Street. And we’re doing really good. I’m building

my portfolio calmly. I’m going to need that money in five or six years, once I’m retired.

More than 70 percent of American pro basketball players go bankrupt when they’re done playing. Aren’t you afraid of that statistic?

The average budget of an NBA player is $50-60,000 a month. For that money they can maintain 2-3 houses, and 4-8 cars. The insurance alone is expen-sive. After 10 years you retire, and then realize that you can only spend $10-15,000 a month. A large number of players cannot accept it and they live the way they used to, until they run out of money.Personally, I can’t be 100 percent sure that I won’t lose the assets I accumulated. Any time there can be a war or things can go wrong, and American economy can go down. I’m not afraid, though, that it would happen because of my sloppiness or my life style. I’m working with high-class specialists in money management, and I have a lot of valuable contacts. I’m trying not to make any misguided moves that could deplete my estate. However, some business mistakes occur sometimes, and it hurts.

The Marcin Gortat interview with Forbes Polska.

The NBA basketball star lays out his views on his

investments, his “black soul,”, Polish patriotism, and

the “Gortat Brand.”

FORBES: Teammates say you have a black soul. What does it mean?

It has something to do with my basketball educa-tion. When I played in Germany, I was spending a lot of time being surrounded by American players. I was curious how the NBA looks, how is life there. I felt good around them, because I could communicate in English. I quickly learned the slang of black players. I contracted their sense of humor and it quickly became my nature. I like to laugh, that’s why I often fool around and clown in the locker room, hoping that everyone will laugh out loud.

It’s your eighth year in the States. Have you changed more as a man or as a player?

I’ve changed in both of those aspects. It’s inextricably linked together. I learned here that life is about the effort, devotion, and trying. It’s about, what Americans call “a good effort,” which means that you can get up in the morning and fully devote yourself to making your dreams come true. For me it was making it to the NBA, then surviving in the league, and becoming a better player. You wake up in the morning with sore ankles, knees, spine, and you have to fight it every day. You have to go to the gym and endlessly repeat the same exercises. Shoot, and shoot… That’s what ultimately molded my personality in the States.

You’re changing, but the passion for fast cars still remains. You’ve got a Ferrari, Porsche, BMW and a Mercedes …

I’ve also got an SUV and a pickup. I used to have the most fun with the 800-horsepower BMW, but I’ve kind of grown up. I plan on selling that car, but it won’t be easy. I dedicated myself to that car, it’s my little love. I’ve got to sell that car some-where to the other side of the world, so I can’t see it anymore.

How else—besides the cars—do you spend money?I don’t change cars too often. I did it recently, after five years, because I signed a new con-tract with the Wizards. I don’t have any

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each player would have one pair of shoes, and one set of jerseys for four seasons. I trained in Poland, in the gyms where windows were smashed, and during the winter, snow would fall inside. Do the States need that support or Poland? If one day some young man achieves success, gets called to play for the national team, or even plays in the NBA, and then says that he started playing at the Gortat Camp, and thanks to the foundation he was given a better chance to develop, I will say that this is one of the biggest achievements of my life.

Apart from the social and charity work, you also support the army. Why?

My dad used to be in the military. Army and military is my hobby. I’m interested in the gear, tactics, and weapons. The aim of my work is to restore the respect that’s due to the uniform. Particularly, I don’t like how we treat the vet-erans in Poland, who fought on the missions abroad. They train hard for many years to risk their lives for us. People who go on missions are going through hell. I had an opportunity to be in Afghanistan and—I assure you—it’s not idyllic. Not everyone gets the chance to return home. But, if it wasn’t for the devotion of the soldiers, a man wouldn’t be able to sit safely in a warm apartment. Sometimes we forget that a capable army makes for the strength of the nation.

That’s a very American motivation.I’m not denying that the projects involving the army were inspired by the USA. Here, the cult of the veterans is very strong. I’ve seen many times people spontaneously approaching the soldiers to thank them for their service. The moment when 20,000 people at the game get up and cheer for the veterans of war, it’s beautiful. It’s not like that in Poland yet, but I have a dream to change it. I want to contribute. That’s one of the reasons I organize the “Gortat Team vs. Polish Army” game every year. That’s why I visit the military bases, that’s why I or-ganize the camps for the kids of soldiers, that’s why I invite the families of fallen heroes to the States.

Would you be ready to go on a mission as a soldier?After adequate training—of course. It’s a tremen-dous honor to fight for your country. Would I be happy being there, on a mission? I doubt it. I’m glad there is no need for me to go there, and I can contribute in different ways. n

The name Marcin Gortat has become a brand. Do you want to gain something from it?

Yes. My next dream is to be remembered. For who I was, and what I did. I’m consequently going in that direction—on, and off the court. I’m really engaged in charity work. On one hand, it gives me a lot of fun, and on the other hand, it fulfills my inner need of sharing. I want to give back to the

community this way. I want to thank the people who support me, who root for me. I’ve also got the satisfaction that I don’t need to sell my private pictures or to schedule a session with paparazzi, or say something outrageous, for people to write about me. Thanks to the position I’m in, I can create new projects, which makes me happy. Projects like supporting the army or children’s development.

Playing in the NBA is stressful. You shoulder the burden of some more things, and in the summer, instead of resting, you drive around Poland orga-nizing camps for kids. Not too much of a burden?

Sometimes it is. People don’t realize with how much mental pressure, and physical exhaustion, NBA players have to deal with. When I wake up in the morning, sometimes it hurts so much that I can barely get to the bathroom. When I play a bad game, an agent or a manager comes up and asks what happened. You play a couple of bad games and you get benched.

Are you considering promoting the Gortat brand in the USA as well?

I focus on Poland, and I’d rather be on the cover of the Polish edition of Forbes than on the American. Maybe some manager or businessman will read what I have to say, and he will think that this Gortat guy is a cool dude, he does valuable stuff, and it’s worth joining him. Maybe someone will send their kid to one of my summer camps and the kid will become a good player?

You could say that you’re a patriot—is that one of the reasons why you’re supporting all those charity-social projects in Poland?

Yeah, I am a patriot. I think rationally. In the States, a 15-year-old basketball player has five pairs of shoes, his team receives jerseys from the spon-sors, support from the school, and a bus to travel with a day before the game. In Poland, the same team would ride a public bus straight to the gym,

Leadership & Discipline

My dad used to be in the military. Army and military is my hobby. I’m interested in the gear, tactics, and weapons. The aim of my work is to restore the respect that’s due to the uniform.

I can’t be 100 percent sure that I won’t lose the assets I accumulated. […] I’m trying not to make any misguided moves that could deplete my estate. However, some business mistakes occur sometimes, and it hurts.