Market welcomes Agora's decision on new CEO, says future brighter UPDATE

Polish media group Agora's shares rose on opening as investors welcomed the company's nomination of Marek Sowa, a former senior executive at Canal+ and other TV companies in Poland, to take over as chief executive.

Sowa, who is 45 and also has experience with other electronic media, needs to be voted onto the board at a meeting of shareholders on Aug 30, and analysts say this should be a formality.

They said it was very good news the company had looked to an outsider with a background in a different sector, offering at least the chance that he will breath fresh life into Agora's operations.

'It's a fantastic decision. I'm very pleasantly surprised,' said Warsaw's DB media analyst Krzysztof Kaczmarczyk.

'Agora had to search hard to find someone like this. Sowa is an ideally tailored manager with background in electronic media and TV, where Agora is not yet represented.'

Agora's stock rose as much as 2 pct in early trade, before settling at a 0.7 pct gain, compared to a 0.8 pct fall for the blue-chip WIG20 index.

The market was prepared for this year's departure of Agora's first and only chief executive, Wanda Rapaczynska, but media reports had suggested the company would appoint current deputy chief executive Zbigniew Bak as her replacement.

Agora, which gets more than half of its revenues from the sale of its flagship daily Gazeta Wyborcza, has suffered from stagnation on the Polish newspaper market and a recent fight for dominance with German publisher Axel Springer, publisher of Poland's best-selling daily Fakt.

Agora, a media company with assets on the newspaper, outdoor, radio and Internet markets, has for years been on the lookout for access to Poland's expanding TV market.

'The company needs fresh blood (and) Marek Sowa has experience with electronic media and should usher Agora into a new era,' said Dorota Puchlew, media analyst with PKO BP (nyse: BP - news - people ) brokerage in Warsaw.

Source: By Adrian Krajewski, forbes.com