Foreigners welcome

Asseco Slovakia (AS) became the first Slovak company and the eighth foreign firm to be listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) when it debuted last Tuesday. "We chose Warsaw because of the large market and fast growth rate," the company's president, Josef Klein, said. The firm wants to use the zł.90 million it raised from Polish investors to expand in the Czech Republic, by creating Asseco Czech, and for further acquisitions at home. It also plans to enter the Romanian and Hungarian markets.

The idea of debuting on the WSE came from Adam Góral, the president of Asseco Poland (AP), which currently owns 41 percent of AS. Prior to the issuing of shares on the Warsaw bourse, the Polish company had a nearly 54-percent stake in AS. Company officials disclosed that AP wants to regain a majority stake. AS shares debuted at zł.280 (the issue price was zł.250) and ended the first day at zł.303.5. On Friday as the bourse closed, the shares stood at zł.290.20.

There may soon be others following on the heels of the Slovak IT firm. "We will do everything to create conditions so that foreign companies will want to be on the WSE," Poland's Minister of the Treasury, Wojciech Jasiński declared. WSE president Ludwik Sobolewski hopes that other Slovak companies will follow Asseco Slovakia's example. "Our stock exchange is becoming an international market," he said, pointing out that Ukrainian Astarta Kiev recently debuted on the Warsaw bourse.