Asseco had originally offered PLN 700m ($261m) for the stake owned by tycoon Ryszard Krauze, but this valuation was deemed much too high by analysts. The revised bid has been welcomed by investors and the deal is expected to be finalized by the end of the month.
As well as controlling Prokom, Krauze is also the biggest shareholder in Asseco, with a 26% stake, and is chairman of the company’s supervisory board. His influence at Asseco increased at the end of last year, when the company merged with Softbank, a division of Prokom which provided software and services to banking institutions.
Krauze is a controversial figure in Poland. Just last month, the country’s prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for him relating to alleged interference into a government anti-corruption probe. Krauze denies the charges, claiming that the move was politically motivated, with Poland gearing up for parliamentary elections in October.
The Polish IT market remains fragmented, despite a large amount of merger activity over the last year. As well as the takeover of Softbank by Asseco, Computerland merged with Emax to create Sygnity, while Spin combined with ABG SterProjekt to form ABG Spin.
Asseco reported revenue of PLN 497.7m ($185.3m) in 2006, with 63% of sales coming from the banking and finance vertical and a further 20% from work within the public sector. In terms of services, the company is focused on application management and implementation, and also provides maintenance and support around existing systems.
Asseco has made no secret of its desire to expand its business. In its most recent annual report, the company, which currently operates in the Czech Republic and Slovakia as well as Poland, outlined plans to move into key markets in central and eastern Europe during 2007, including Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, with moves into Germany and Austria planned for the following year.
According to figures from Datamonitor, the Polish IT services market was worth $3.2bn in 2006. This figure is expected to rise nearly 18% to $3.8bn this year and hit $4.5bn in 2008.
