Bourse on the block

Treasury Minister Wojciech Jasiński says the Ministry is weighing up a proposal to sell a 47.8-percent stake in the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Speaking at the Central and Eastern European Market Forum last week, the Minister said packets of five- to 10-percent stakes could be sold to selected financial institutions, investment funds, pension funds and issuers.

"I decisively exclude the possibility of selling the stock exchange to a branch investor. I think that [if that happened] the risk of reducing Warsaw to [taking] orders from one of the huge European bourses would be highly probable," said Minister Jasiński.

Currently, the Treasury holds a 98.8-percent stake and the remaining shares belong to banks and brokerage houses. The Minister is unwilling to give up his department's controlling stake, however. He believes the state should play an important stabilizing role since the Polish market is still not mature enough.

Remigiusz Sopel from IDM SA says it is a good sign for the market and a chance for further development. "This could speed up the consolidation process or lead to close cooperation with other stock exchanges as far as information and transaction platforms are concerned," says Sopel. Jasiński emphasized that the Treasury wants to provide funds for possible acquisitions of other stock exchanges in the region, for example in Sofia, Bulgaria, or Ljubljana, Slovenia.

According to Jasiński, a new valuation process is in progress. The Ministry expects it to show the WSE to have greatly appreciated since the last valuation, which was completed two years ago. The Ministry also wants to push for a lifting of a regulation that prevents the stock exchange from paying out dividends.