The Warsaw Stock Exchange, the biggest exchange in central and eastern Europe, is now leading the field across the whole of Europe for the number of stock flotations in July and August, a new study shows.
The Polish exchange handled 12 of the 23 initial public offerings (IPOs) in Europe during the two summer months, the study by financial consultants Ernst&Young showed.
Ten of the flotations were made on the WSE\'s NewConnect market, focused on small and medium-sized companies in the technical sector.
The value of the flotations was modest by global standards, but the high number of companies coming to market to raise funds reflects the dynamism which has taken the WSE to the top spot in central and eastern Europe, even ahead of the Vienna market.
With its domestic market capitalisation standing at 117 billion euros $150 billion) in September, the WSE has outstripped its main regional competitors namely Vienna (70 billion euros) and Prague (32 billion euros), according to figures compiled by the Warsaw market.
"Up to now, 2012 has brought a big slowdown in terms of large companies entering our main market, while it has reinforced the position of bond markets (...) There\'s also the NewConnect market which is open to smaller companies and continues to motivate small, very dynamic Polish entrepreneurs," WSE President and CEO Ludwik Sobolewski told AFP.
"The Warsaw market, which is open to start-ups and companies from abroad, is among the most dynamic in the region," according to Arkadiusz Drozdziel, an analyst with Poland\'s leading Money.pl financial news website.
"Above all, the NewConnect market is still growing. At a time when venture capital is less accessible than it was two or three years ago, it\'s a good solution for small and medium-sized business," he added.
The stability of the Polish economy is also a selling point. Poland is the only country in the 27-member European Union to have achieved consistent growth since the 2008 global crisis.
Poland, an ex-communist country of 38.2 million people which has yet to enter the eurozone, has relatively healthy public finances, with a national debt within the EU-defined limits which some EU members have exceeded by a wide margin.
The exchange hopes to attract more foreign companies. It already provides listings for big regional companies such as the Czech Republic\'s CEZ electricity giant, Hungary\'s MOL fuels company and Slovenia\'s KRKA pharmaceuticals firm. Meanwhile, shares in companies from Poland\'s non-EU ex-Soviet neighbour Ukraine are traded on a special platform, the WIG Ukraina.
"Among the stock markets in the region which Ukrainian companies can access, it\'s on the Warsaw exchange that investors are most familiar with Ukraine. For transactions of a relatively moderate size, it\'s the most dynamic bourse in the region," said Magda Kolodziejczyk, spokesperson for KDM Shipping, a Ukrainian group which began trading on the WSE on August 9.
"Warsaw is a place where we can find investors interested in these types of moderate-sized investments. In London or Frankfurt, we\'re talking much larger sums," she added.
At the end of August, the WSE was fourth among European exchanges in terms of traded index futures with a volume of 6.299 billion euros from January to, placing hit ahead of Madrid (5.46 billion euros) and Oslo (5.553 billion euros). The Eurex topped Europe with 268.220 billion euros in trade, followed by the NYSE Euronext at 57.041 billion euros and the NASDAQ with 22.740 billion euros
Currently, 850 companies are traded on the WSE. Its main WIG platform host 435 companies, including 41 foreign firms, which were worth a total 690 billion zloty (217 billion euros, $216 billion) late in September. Shares in an additional 415 firms are traded on the NewConnect.
After Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939, there was no stock trading for decades, first because of the war and then because the county became Communist.
The first bell on the WSE trading floor rang in 1991 after the collapse of Communism in Poland two year earlier.
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