Giant of Polish e-commerce, Allegro,  may finally go public. The suggested date is the end of this year's holidays. According to Bloomberg, Allegro’s private equity owners are planning an initial public offering of the Polish online auction site.

The company's valuation can reach €10 billion. Shares worth over €2 billion are to be intended for sale, according to Bloomberg, citing unofficial information.

Cinven, Permira and Mid Europa Partners have picked Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as global coordinators for the deal, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. Allegro’s listing would be a welcome boost for the European IPO market, which is on track for the slowest first half since 2012, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Fundraising on exchanges in the region is down 42 percent from a year earlier.

Any deal could come close to displacing Polish state-owned insurer PZU SA’s 2010 share sale, which raised the equivalent of 2.1 billion euros, as the biggest-ever listing from the country, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Allegro, a marketplace similar to eBay Inc., is among e-commerce operators benefiting as people go online to buy everything from clothes to home ware during the coronavirus lockdowns.

Allegro was started in 1999 and now has more than 21 million registered users, making it one of the largest e-commerce platforms serving Eastern Europe, according to its website. Cinven, Permira and Mid Europa agreed to buy the business from South Africa’s Naspers Ltd. for $3.25 billion in 2016.

(300gospodarka)