The Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) and the Polish National Depository for Securities, in cooperation with the Polish Ministry of Treasury, yesterday completed the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) IPO Roadshow with a press conference in Warsaw.
The aim of the roadshow, which was kickstarted earlier this month, is to attract companies from Hungary, Slovenia, Ukraine, Israel and Lithuania to Warsaw by presenting the city as a financial centre. Central to the roadshow is the belief, held by the above organizers, that Polish capital markets have been resilient to the crisis and foreign companies can access international capital markets at a leading regional stock exchange. At the same time, the WSE gains from the increased liquidity and added visibility that each international listing brings to the bourse.
112 new companies were listed on the WSE in 2010, 38 in 2009 and 93 in 2008. As of Aug. 31 2011, 149 new companies have been listed at the exchange. Over the past 12 months, WSE has witnessed 17 international IPOs, making it a leader in the CEE financial markets.
Almost 100 foreign issuers joined the group meetings in Budapest, Ljubljana, Kiev, Tel Aviv and Vilnius. Over 20 one-on-one meetings were also held throughout the roadshow.
The roadshow is part of a larger initiative, the CEE IPO Summit, an event aimed at building a platform for cooperation between capital seekers from the CEE region and global capital providers in Warsaw. The first meeting was held in May this year. Based on the success of the recent roadshow, the organizers will hold a second CEE IPO Summit in the second quarter of 2012.
Minister of Treasury Aleksander Grad said the roadshow, along with plans for a second CEE Summit, will be an important point in the countrys dialogue with domestic and international investors.
Deputy Minister of Treasury Krzysztof Walenczak added that this was the right time to approach companies in the region considering to go public or to raise capital via a secondary offering. As a region, the CEE has fared well during the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. The Polish economy has been and will be attracting an increasing stock of local and international capital seeking investment opportunities. All that proves that the capital markets in Poland have proven to be fairly resilient.
The CEE IPO Roadshow was supported by financial institutions including Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, UBS, Bank Zachodni, ING, IPOPEMA Securities, UniCredit and Wood & Company.
(JDC)