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Prospects for foreign companies’ IPOs on Warsaw Stock Exchange in 2012
Number of foreign companies listed on WSE increased in 2011
In 2011 the Warsaw Stock Exchange attracted 16 foreign companies, including 12 debuting on the WSE’s main list and 4 entering its alternative market NewConnect. Thus, the number of foreign issuers on the WSE increased by over 53% y/y and amounted to 46 (39 on the main list and 7 on NewConnect). While the group of foreign firms present on the WSE is geographically diversified (with as much as 19 countries, apart from Poland, represented on the WSE’s main market alone), companies from the region of Central and Eastern Europe are the most numerous. In the country-level breakdown, the most numerous group of foreign firms on the WSE is the one from Ukraine (11 companies listed on the WSE’s both markets), followed by the Czech Republic (7 companies).
Debuts on the WSE (main list and NewConnect) in consecutive quarters of 2010 and 2011 with a breakdown into domestic and foreign debutants
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source: WSE
Last year’s turmoil on financial markets might have delayed some of WSE debuts
Some of the foreign companies that had planned their debuts on the WSE in 2011 suspended or cancelled their stock market plans in the face of financial markets turmoil exacerbating in the second half of the year. Two of such firms were the Ukrainian farming sector company MCB Agricole, which had planned to debut on the WSE in January 2012 but cancelled its public offering on December 29 “due to unsatisfactory level of demand on the shares offered in the process of book-building”, and the Ukrainian polyurethane foam producer Interfoam Holding, which on November 29 announced suspending its public offering “due to unfavorable macroeconomic situation as well as … difficult situation on capital markets.”
It is not excluded that companies such as the two will return to their plans in the present year, with the market situation stabilizing. Dariusz Greszta, a partner in the law firm CMS Cameron McKenna, heading the transaction and corporate law department in the firm’s Warsaw office, in an interview for PAP published on February 2, recognizes the difficult situation on the WSE’s primary market at the beginning of 2012, but also speaks of the Warsaw market’s attractiveness for investors. “We [CMS Cameron McKenna] have had several IPO projects but all of them are now suspended. We have many offices in the CEE region and get many inquiries from potential candidates, including Bulgarian and Ukrainian companies, and – to a lesser extent – Hungarian companies. We also had inquiries from Slovakia, and there is a suspended IPO process of a Czech company. They [foreign companies] are attracted to Warsaw first of all because of its higher liquidity, the WSE is attractive in this respect,” Greszta said.
Number of companies present on the WSE (main list and NewConnect) in consecutive quarters of 2010 and 2011 with a breakdown into domestic and foreign companies
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source: WSE
CEE region’s firms are still interested in presence on WSE
Signs of interest in a debut on the WSE are seen amidst companies from the majority of important markets of Central and Eastern Europe: Slovenia, Romania, Ukraine, Russia and Hungary, according to the comments of the WSE’s chairman Ludwik Sobolewski sent to PAP on February 6.
“The successful debut of the Slovenian bank Nova Kreditna Banka Maribor last year inclined other Slovenian companies to think about listing in Warsaw. Triglav, already listed in Lublana, wants to enter the WSE in order to strengthen its exposure on the Central European market. If we consider the fact that the company currently owns about 40% of Slovenia’s privatized assets, we can see what a big role the WSE plays at present. An interest in a dual-listing in Warsaw is also displayed by the white goods producer Gorenje and Slovenian pharmaceuticals producer KRKA,” the WSE CEO informed PAP.
“We already have a strong representation of Ukrainian companies on the WSE – 11 companies on the main market and NewConnect in total, out of which as many as 7 belong to farming and food sector. We now hope that the group of Ukrainian companies will be getting more diversified sector-wise,” Sobolewski said.
“In the food production sector, an interest in raising capital on the Warsaw floor is also visible in Russia. Last year, [Russian firm] Valinor suspended its offering due to financial markets anxiety. Recently, there has also been some hype about the WSE entering plans of Sbierbank, Russia’s largest bank,” the WSE head enumerated.
The WSE’s force of attraction has a yet further reach. According to Sobolewski, “an interest [in WSE debut] is also visible in the banking sector in Georgia.”
“We also see a considerable potential in Hungary,” the WSE CEO adds. “Particularly in the real estate development sector there are many companies of impressive capabilities. I had the opportunity to talk to them during the stock exchange’s Central and Eastern European roadshow and I saw that the interest in WSE was very apparent there. Those companies stand the chance of appearing on the WSE – one cannot foresee when exactly but the talks are being held.”
As far as Romania is concerned, Sobolewski counts on the soon debut of the Romanian fund Fondul Propietatea. “In this case, however, much depends on the stance of the Romanian regulator,” he makes a reservation.
WSE to introduce regional index possibly already in March
According to Sobolewski’s announcement of December 20, in March 2012 the WSE is to launch a regional index that is to be composed of Warsaw-listed foreign companies. “Our simulations suggest that … as of today, the index would consist of 27 firms from seven countries, out of 46 [foreign firms] present on the WSE,” the WSE CEO explained.
“The aim [of introducing the index] is to show international investors the regional assets that are somehow representative for the [CEE] region’s economy and listed in Warsaw,” he said.
Source - Polish Press Agency, Economic Service
Author : Investor Relations Department
Statystyka strony: 118 wizyt
