The company had previously bucked the current trend of caution within the industry by issuing a E500 million bond scheme. Donald Chodak, finance director, explained that the share of traditional fixed-line investment of the total budget would fall from 60% in 1999 to a planned 40% in three years’ time. Investment would focus instead on mobile telephony, data transmission and packet switching.
The company’s successful issue of bonds, enabling a significant revenue production is contrary to other large telecom firms which have struggled in the downturn in the telecom industry. Schroder Salomon Smith Barney, the US investment bank, and Germany’s Deutsche Bank stated that the success of the bonds was a particular incidence and should not be seen as a signal of revival.
Donald Chodak was confident that the Polish economy would aid him if he needed to return to the market to raise further funds. Since interest rates in Poland were falling towards EU levels, it could in the next year or so become cheaper to raise money there than in the international market.