IDMSA's strategy

Bourse-listed brokerage firm IDMSA wants to raise several hundred million złoty through a new share issue. The firm plans to issue up to 109,088,428 I-series shares and 10,908,840 J-series shares, as well as subscription warrants for J-series shares.

The group also wants to move its brokerage activities to a new subsidiary, leaving the parent company to control the group's development and manage its daughter firms. Apart from brokerage services, IDMSA controls several companies operating in the areas of asset management, corporate services and currency exchange.

"The move ... is a natural consequence of development," said Grzegorz Leszczyński, IDMSA's president, during a press conference. The final decision on the share issue will be made during the extraordinary general meeting on January 25.

The funds from the share issue will be spent on entering the banking segment, among other things. The company wants to apply in Q1 for a license to conduct banking activity. It hopes to obtain the license by the end of the year, meaning it could start offering services in 2009. "We have held talks on takeovers of several banks ... but we will most probably start a new entity," said Leszczyński.

The company considers last year a success as the first three quarters of 2007 brought it a record net profit of zł.102.4 million, a fivefold increase over 2006. IDMSA's net profit grew six times over the previous year's results, reaching the level of zł.117 million, and the company oversaw 11 IPOs, whose total value amounted to zł.838.14 million. This year IDMSA wants to handle about 20 IPOs and over 10 pre-IPO investments.

With an economic slowdown looming, the new year could be choppy for a company as bourse dependent as IDMSA is, said Piotr Kuczyński, chief analyst at Xelion. "I believe that a crisis in the US will affect Poland's economy and the bourse," he told WBJ.