More is less for stock exchange

The second quarter of 2006 saw five IPOs on the WSE - North Coast, Sfinks, Eurofilms, Bankier.pl and Mispol. The total value of these came to EUR 61 (zł.248) million, and all of Q2's IPOs were small and medium-sized companies, with none exceeding an individual value of EUR 25 (zł.102) million. Work is underway on the flotations of Cash Flow, Gino Rossi, and Pamapol.

The first three months of the year saw no IPOs on the bourse. "After a short period of a complete inactivity on the IPO market, which took place in Q1 and was mainly caused by new regulations concerning the capital markets, Q2 brought an unexpected revival," said the vice president of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in Poland, Jacek Socha. "This happened despite the fact that a significant correction took place on the WSE, which resulted in the decrease of all indexes."

This year, though, looks extremely poor compared to 2005, when nine IPOs were recorded in Q2 with a total value of EUR 522 (zł.2,119) million. Last year the privatization of large state-owned firms played a significant role on the primary market.

However, the slow start could be the calm before the storm. According to PwC, in the last few months 43 companies have announced that they plan to enter the bourse in 2006. It is expected that the number of IPOs in the second half of the year will exceed the number recorded in 2004 and 2005.