Poland - Factors to Watch on March 12

Here are news stories, press reports and events to watch which 
may affect Poland's financial markets on Wednesday. ALL TIMES 
GMT (Poland: GMT + 1 hour): 
     
    PZU    
    Eastern Europe's largest insurer booked a 1.2-percent rise 
in its last-year's net profit, as growth in gross written 
premiums helped outweigh a fall in profits on investments, it 
said on Wednesday.  
    The state-controlled group showed a bottom line of 3.3 
billion zlotys ($1.08 billion), fully in line with market 
estimates.    
     
    SHALE GAS 
    Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Tuesday his 
government approved a new shale gas bill, set to be 
investor-friendly thanks to cutting red tape and regulatory 
hurdles.   
     
    GAS SUPPLIES 
    Poland will be less dependent on gas deliveries from Russia 
next winter thanks to new gas links and a liquefied natural gas 
terminal that is scheduled to start importing gas next January, 
its prime minister said.    
     
    COAL INDUSTRY 
    Polish coal miners closed last year with the net profit of 
430 million zlotys, the figure over 70 percent lower than a year 
earlier due to the drop in coal prices, daily Parkiet reported 
on Wednesday. 
     
    COAL GASIFICATION 
    Australian company Linc Energy, which has just obtained 
another exploration license in Poland believes in good prospects 
of underground coal gasification in the country, Puls Biznesu 
daily reported. 
     
    BUDGET DEFICIT 
    Poland's central budget deficit stood at about 9.5 billion 
zlotys after February, or 20 percent of the 2014 plan, a 
document from the finance ministry obtained by Reuters showed. 
   
     
    MILITARY TIES WITH U.S.  
    Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Wednesday on the 
Polish Radio that in the light of the Ukrainian crisis Poland 
should tighten its cooperation with American army, also on the 
Polish soil. 
     
    BNP PARIBAS POLSKA   
    The Polish unit of French BNP Paribas    plans to 
issue up to 5 million shares in secondary offering to support 
its lending activity, Parkiet daily reported.     
     
    For other related news, double click on: 
 Polish equities        PL-E      E.Europe equities      .CEE  
 Polish money           PL-M      Polish debt            PL-D   
 Eastern Europe         EEU       All emerging markets   EMRG  
 Hot stocks             HOT       Stock markets          STX  
 Market debt news       DBT       Forex news             FRX  
  
 For real-time index quotes, double click on: 
 Warsaw WIG20     Budapest BUX     Prague PX    
($1 = 3.0446 Polish zlotys) 
 
 
Keywords: POLAND FACTORS/