ComArch to head for the Big Board
What happens when a budding tech upstart outgrows its nesting place on the parallel market? It moves to Poland's "Big Board," the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE).
And so it goes with ComArch, the Krakow-based information technology (IT) company that provides computer software, hardware and services to telecommunications and financial firms. When ComArch moves to the main exchange in April, it will join the IT major league, which includes companies such as ComputerLand, Optimus, Prokom and Softbank.
According to Grazyna Kucharska, public relations specialist at ComArch, the company hopes that the change of residence will bring it prestige, greater trust from investors, capital from investment funds that only buy shares of companies listed on the main floor, as well as a shot at becoming part of the WIG 20 index a portfolio price index based on the market capitalizations of the 20 largest blue chips listed on the main market.
Analysts say ComArch is attractive to investors not only because it's a well-run company with a broad range of products, but also because of its recently established internet portal Interia (www.interia.pl), a joint effort with radio station RMF FM. At the end of 1999, Interia had 60,000 users in a nationwide market of 2 million internet users, which gave the company 10% of the portal "market share," according to Salomon Smith Barney. It ranks third among domestic portals, behind Onet and Wirtualna Polska, with 45% and 25% of the portal market share, respectively.
The portal venture has been the main driver of ComArch's share price in the last three months, said Rafal Wiatr, equity analyst at Salomon Smith Barney. The price has shot up from zl. 154.50 on Jan. 7 to zl. 275.50 on March 16, an increase of 78%.
