- The number of bond series listed on Catalyst has been growing steadily and is now close to 400.
- The value of trading has been growing firmly.
- The success of PKN Orlen’s retail bonds has demonstrated the growth potential of WSE’s debt market.
- Catalyst is becoming an alternative to investments in bank deposits.
It was four years ago (on 30 September 2009) that the Warsaw Stock Exchange opened Catalyst, Poland’s first comprehensive platform of trading in debt instruments issued by companies, local governments, and banks. The transparent, organised and secure bond market has allowed thousands of entities to raise funding on the public capital market.
“The four years of Catalyst have demonstrated that it pays off to invest in the debt market. Numbers speak for themselves: the value of bond series in 2009, when Catalyst opened, was PLN 5 billion; now it is PLN 59 billion. We are continuously working to develop a risk assessment and monitoring system that will give investors the comfort that their investment is safe while enhancing the credibility of issuers. The success of Catalyst, which has reached a critical mass in terms of the number of issuers, will make it possible to take initiatives aimed at a market architecture that is the best fit for the issuer and investor profile,” said Adam Maciejewski, President and CEO of the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
Today Catalyst lists 394 bond series issued by 170 non-Treasury issuers. The value of the listed series (corporate bonds, municipal bonds, mortgage bonds) was PLN 58.7 billion at the end of August 2013 v. PLN 49.0 billion in August 2012, an increase of nearly 20 percent. The value of trading in 2013 (year to date at the end of August) was PLN 2.96 billion, more than the value of trading in all of 2012, when PLN 2.47 billion of non-Treasury bonds were traded.
Four years into trading on Catalyst, the project has effected a sweeping change in the architecture of Poland’s debt market and addressed the needs of both issuers and investors, as demonstrated by the steadily growing number and value of bonds listed on Catalyst, notwithstanding the continuing economic slow-down in Poland.