Correction fails to dampen IPO aspirations

The WSE has reportedly run out of dates for IPOs in December, and the Financial Supervisory Commission is currently processing the IPO prospectuses of 61 more   companies. "December will be very hot, especially the days between Christmas and New Year's Eve," says Dariusz Marszłałek, a spokesman for the WSE. Meat processor ZM Herman is among the few companies that decided to postpone their debuts until better times. Most others, such as farming machinery producer Pol-Mot Warfama which is listing next month, prefer to stay the course. Market analysts expect there will be some slowdown in the IPO pipeline in the new year, but not very much. Indeed, preliminary data from mutual funds indicate that fears of a major flight from the stock market by retail investors in November did not materialize, and this bodes well for the future. A total of 72 companies have launched IPOs on the WSE this year, an all-time high. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 29; Rzeczpospolita, p. B10) R.M.