Market midwife

Brokerage house IDMSA had a banner year in 2006, shattering its preliminary projections by 100 percent to see a net profit of zł.28.75 million.

"Last year was the best in the house's history," says IDMSA's deputy CEO Rafał Abratański.

The profit was generated from all areas of IDMSA's activity, though mainly from its activity on the primary market. Revenue from broker services reached over zł.34 million and out of the 38 debuts on the Warsaw Stock Exchange last year, seven IPOs were facilitated by IDMSA. These include the IPOs of financial portal Bankier.pl and shoe-manufacturer Gino Rossi. In addition, the brokerage handled six share issues.

According to IDMSA's deputy CEO, investments by pension funds, foreign capital interested in large, privatized companies and the number of individual clients have all grown and will continue to do so. "Our recent Gadu-gadu issue attracted people who haven't got a clue about stock-exchange investments [but use the Gadu-gadu instant messenger]," said Abratański.

Apart from broker services, IDMSA operates in the areas of asset management, corporate services and the foreign-exchange market. In 2006, its foreign-markets department introduced capital risk management services as well as access to the SaxoTrader trading platform, which is available under the name IDMSA Trader.

The plans for 2007 involve further dynamic growth and extending the range of offers.

"Our mission is to show paths through the capital market. It is not about being the biggest, but to generate profits," said Rafał Abratański. "We are a midwife for terrific business enterprises."