Trading starts today on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) in shares of Powszechna Kasa Oszczednosi Bank Polski S.A. (PKO BP), following the largest IPO in Polish history.
The WSE has had to alter trading hours – orders for PKO BP shares will start at 7:00 a.m. and continuous trading in the bank’s shares will begin at 9:00 a.m. – to cope with the anticipated level of interest. Any single broker’s order will be limited to 20.000 shares.
“It will not be possible to place market orders without price limits,” says a spokesman for Bank Austria Creditanstalt (BA-CA) in Warsaw. “In this market, orders must be filled.”
The government has offered a 38.5% stake in PKO BP, worth PLN 6.7 billion. 85 million shares, constituting over 22% of the value of the IPO, have been allocated to foreign investors.
Individuals who subscribed for PKO BP shares by 30 October, and therefore are eligible for a 4 per cent price discount, will receive 10.01 percent of the stock they requested. Individual investors who ordered shares in the week ended Friday are eligible for a 2 per cent discount, and will get 5.16 percent of the stock they sought.
The government aims to raise 7.9 billion zloty ($2.4 billion) in all from the PKO sale.
The issue was increase in size to cope with the level of interest.
The Polish government is selling the stock as part of its effort to cut the budget deficit and qualify to join the euro. The IPO will help the government meet its target of raising 8.8 billion zloty from asset sales this year.