Cefarm Bialystok, a pharmaceuticals producer and one of the last four state-controlled sector firms, is preparing itself for yet another privatization bid to take place in the second half of the year.

The company, which has already filed a motion to restart the whole procedure, controls 2% of the domestic market and in 2002 reported sales of around zl. 205 million. It owns 48 pharmacies which will not pass unnoticed by the biggest medicine wholesalers: PGF, Farmacol, Orfe and Prosper.

Prosper, which has already made two unsuccessful takeover bids of Cefarm Bialystok and Cefarm Kraków, says it will now wait to see the tender conditions before it goes to battle.

According to Jacek Szwajcowski, the head of PGF, privatization of the last Cefarm should not linger as they are beginning to run out of power, lose markets and subsequently, value.

(WBJ 07.ii.03)