Warsaw stock exchange to launch IPO
THE Warsaw stock exchange announced yesterday its plan to list on its own market offering a 64 per cent stake to private investors by the end of the year, in an offer valued at up to 1.3bn zlotys (£284.2m).
The initial public offering (IPO) will target Polish investors and selected foreign institutional players.
Poland aborted several previous attempts to privatise the stock exchange, most recently abandoning plans to sell it to one of the world’s leading operators after the final bidder, Deutsche Boerse walked away from final talks a year ago.
The Warsaw stock exchange lists 383 companies on its main exchange with a combined market capitalisation of 727bn zlotys. In the first-half of this year, it reported revenue of 111.5m zlotys.
“The public offer is an important step towards realising our main goal of becoming Central and Eastern Europe’s financial centre and one of Europe’s leading markets,” chief executive Ludwik Sobolewski said in a statement. The IPO will target Polish investors and selected foreign institutional players, the bourse said. Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and UBS will serve as the offer’s global coordinators.