Germanos buys in Poland
Mobile phone and accessories retailer Germanos has completed deals to buy two Polish retail chains for about 10 million euros in a bid to expand its presence in the country, the company said yesterday. Last year, Germanos had said it was holding talks to buy one of its competitors in Poland, aiming to double its market share in Poland to 15 percent from 7 percent. The retailer said it completed the acquisition of GTI SP.Z.O.O. and Genimpex Spolka Jawna, with 115 and 46 outlets respectively, bringing Germanos’s total number of branches in Poland to 323. «With these acquisitions, Germanos’s market share in Poland is expected to approach 14 percent at end-2004, while the goal is to reach 25 percent by end-2005,» the company said in a statement. The firm is expected to post a 30 percent rise in first-quarter pretax profit after minorities, boosted by international expansion and growth in the Greek mobile market. The report is expected after today’s market close. A Reuters poll of 11 analysts forecast pretax profit after minorities at 11.4 million euros ($13.68 million) on average, versus 8.8 million in the same period last year. «We expect another good set of results, aided by the increased usage in the domestic mobile market, the successful international expansion as well as the growing wholesale business,» said analyst George Papaggelis of Egnatia Securities. (Reuters)
