Warsaw Stock Exchange: European IPO Leader In 2011

• The WSE is the European leader by the number of IPOs and ranks third by the value of IPOs in all of 2011.
• Very high IPO activity on the NewConnect market.

According to the latest quarterly PwC IPO Watch Europe report, which presents the number and the value of initial public offerings (IPO) on European securities exchanges, 47 percent of all IPOs in all of 2011 took place in Warsaw. In total, 203 companies were newly listed on the two stock markets operated by the WSE (the regulated and the alternative market) in 2011.

In terms of IPO value, the Warsaw Stock Exchange ranked third in Europe with IPO value of EUR 2.2 billion, following the London Stock Exchange and the Madrid Stock Exchange (Table 1).

Table 1. IPO number and value on European exchanges in 2011 (in aggregate alternative and regulated markets).

Source: PwC, IPO Watch Europe, Q4 2011

 The WSE was Europe’s #1 market by the number of IPOs in Q1, Q2, and Q3 2011. It remained the unchallenged leader in Q4 2011, the time of the weakest conditions on the global IPO market (Table 2).

Table 2. IPO number and value on European exchanges in 2011 by quarter (in aggregate alternative and regulated markets).

* NewConnect IPOs totalled EUR 19 mn in Q4 2011. However, after rounding off, the value of some offerings is nil; the figures above are the totals of rounded off figures.

Source: PwC, IPO Watch Europe, Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4 2011.

In total, 42 companies were newly listed on the Warsaw stock markets in Q4 2011, including 4 companies on the WSE Main Market and 38 companies on NewConnect. The biggest IPO on the WSE in Q4 was the IPO of Voxel worth EUR 4.8 million (health care sector). The second largest was the IPO of Fiten (EUR 1.8 million, municipal services). The third largest was the IPO of Centrum Finansowe Banku BPS (EUR 1.7 million, debt collection and restructuring services). These companies were all newly listed on NewConnect. On the Main Market, in addition to two Polish companies, two Bulgarian companies were newly listed: Sopharma (pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors) and Eurohold Bulgaria (investments).

 The IPO Watch report once again stresses the high activity of issuers on the WSE alternative stock market, which has remained strong for several quarters. The attractiveness of NewConnect is the main driver of the WSE’s record-breaking IPO numbers, including in the downturn.