Energizing the bourse

According to Cezary Iwański, deputy president of Pioneer Pekao Investment Management, energy companies that stay outside the stock market are losing a number of opportunities, and the WSE is also suffering as a result.

Iwański points out that the market capitalization of three big companies in the utilities sector, Kogeneracja, PEP and Praterm, amounts to just 0.32 percent of the WSE's capitalization. By comparison, the market value of the Czech CEZ would amount to 17 percent. "Czech CEZ debuted on the stock exchange in 1997 and has been expanding very rapidly in the last three years," he says.

Krzysztof Rodojewski, a financial analyst with DI BRE, says that as the value of the Polish Energy Group (PGE) is estimated at some zł.30 billion, if it debuts on the WSE, the market capitalization of the bourse should rise almost 10 percent. In his opinion, Grupa Południowa, the second consolidated energy group in the south of Poland, is worth at least zł.15 billion.

According to the government energy program, up to 35 percent of PGE shares are to be floated by 2008, while Grupa Południowa should debut on the WSE in the same year.

KM