- The WSE ranked #1 in Europe by the number of IPOs and #5 by the value of IPOs in 2012.
- The Warsaw Stock Exchange was Europe’s third most active IPO market by value in Q4 2012.
- Alior Bank was the second biggest offering in the European banking sector in 2012 and a top five offering on European exchanges in Q4 2012.
According to the most recent PwC IPO Watch Europe quarterly report, which presents the number and the value of initial public offerings (IPO) on the main European exchanges, the WSE has once again reported the highest number of IPOs in Europe. 105 IPOs which took place in Warsaw represent 40% of all IPOs in Europe in the past year. The total value of IPOs (EUR 731 million) gave the WSE the fifth position among the exchanges operating on Europe’s most developed capital markets.
“The activity on the IPO market in Warsaw, both in terms of quantity and value, has for several years placed us at the top of the European ranking and helped to build a stronger position of the Polish capital market in Europe than the value of trading on the secondary market alone would allow. It is and will be our objective to create optimal conditions of business growth for local and international entrepreneurs leveraging the potential and competences of the capital market in Poland, which will obviously create an increasingly attractive offer for local and international investors,” said Adam Maciejewski, Vice-President of the Management Board of the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
Table 1. Number and value of IPOs on European exchanges in 2012
(total alternative and regulated markets).
Source: PwC, IPO Watch Europe, Q4 2012 report.
In Q4, the Warsaw Stock Exchange ranked second by the number of IPOs after the London Stock Exchange Group (LSE), whose markets had 26 IPOs. In Q4 2012, the WSE had 21 IPOs (including 5 IPOs on the WSE’s Main Market and 16 IPOs on NewConnect), which accounted for more than 30% of all IPOs on European markets.
In terms of the value of IPOs in Q4 2012 (EUR 653 million), the Warsaw Stock Exchange ranked third in Europe after the LSE Group (EUR 3.9 billion) and the Deutsche Boerse (EUR 2.1 billion).
Table 2. Number and value of IPOs on European exchanges in 2012 by quarter (total alternative and regulated markets – in the order of the number of IPOs).
Source: PwC, IPO Watch Europe, Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4 2012 reports.
The biggest IPO on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in Q4 and in all of 2012 was the offering of Alior Bank. It was also the biggest private placement in the history of the Polish exchange and it was worth EUR 511 million. It was the fifth biggest European IPO in Q4 and the second biggest offering of a bank in 2012 after Sberbank listed on the LSE (EUR 4.0 billion).
“The floatation of Alior Bank on the exchange is a result of five years of very hard and interesting work. We feel all the more satisfaction that it has been an IPO of great importance to the Polish capital market, well noted in the banking sector across Europe. The example of Alior Bank shows that Polish companies which have a purely private origin may belong to the world’s best. I do hope that it will be an optimistic forecast for the future of the Polish exchange, initiating a strong trend of the best and biggest companies from the private sector going public,” said Helene Zaleski, President of the Supervisory Board of Alior Bank.
The second biggest IPO in Warsaw both in Q4 and in all of 2012 was the new listing of Zespół Elektrowni „Pątnów-Adamów-Konin” SA, a company with a stake held by the State Treasury, worth EUR 165 million.
The Swiss company Orphée was newly listed on NewConnect. Its offering worth EUR 14 million was the second biggest in the history of the WSE’s alternative stock market.