Idmsa.pl to expand financial service product range
By Aleksander Nowacki
Internetowy Dom Maklerski (Internet Brokerage House, or Idmsa.pl) is looking to acquire a small bank by the end of the year as its first step towards building a financial group that would offer clients a complete range of financial services. Other market players are skeptical, suggesting that the Kraków-based firm may have to settle for a more modest role on the market, claiming that it does not have the resources necessary to achieve its target.
According to Grzegorz Leszczyński, Idmsa.pl president, the group would be expanded to include an insurance company at a later date. Idmsa.pl is also eyeing a larger share of the stock exchange market, with plans to become one of the top 10 of brokerage houses in coming years.
Leszczyński said that the company is looking at a bank or two that might be acquired for zł. 15 million-zł. 20 million (€3.4 million-€4.5 million). "But we are open to any offers," he added. Funds for the investment would be put forward by the shareholders, meaning the company's management team and its partners on the stock exchange. Idmsa.pl is not currently looking for a foreign investor, although next year it is likely to invite the Bank of Luxembourg, whose president is to visit the country at the end of the month, to take over part of the group.
"But it's too early for that," Leszczyński said. "We will discuss things when the structure is known."
The Bank of Luxembourg refused to comment on the potential deal, saying that it would neither confirm nor deny any interest in the Polish market, or its president's plans for a visit here.
"There may be some things I don't know about, (but) I don't see that there's enough capital in the company to be able to provide a full range of services," said Wojciech Sadowski, president of CA IB Securities, the country's second largest brokerage. "I can see it, however, prospering as a niche operation."
Leszczyński says that the global trend is for small flexible institutions to play an increasing role on the market. He said that the realization that there is demand for just such partners among potential foreign investors led the company to abandon plans to sell the brokerage, opting instead to acquire other institutions.
The company is also hoping for a major turnaround in its core business on the stock exchange. The smallest brokerage just two years ago, Idmsa.pl has been increasing in size to become a middle-range player with a 0.4-percent share in stock turnovers and a 1.8-percent market share in futures transactions. Leszczyński was also keen to highlight the fact that Idmsa.pl introduced meat producer ZM Duda to the stock exchange last year and that it has become a leader on the non-public market.
"We would like to establish a solid position among the top 10 brokerage houses," he said, specifying that a position somewhere among the top six or seven would be satisfactory.
That, however, will be difficult on a market dominated by institutional investors who have settled with their established brokers.
"That would require capturing an 8 percent-10 percent market share," said Wojciech Sadowski. "I don't see that as a realistic target. It's hard to say what could bring it about. It would have to be something truly out of the ordinary."
