Noble acta

Poland's first private banking institution, Noble Bank, which is part of the listed Getin Holding, has just published its issue prospectus. The bank was set up just over a year ago and its bourse debut is scheduled for June.

"We are going to issue 15 million H-series shares, out of which 8.25 million will be designated for institutional investors, and three groups of 2.25 million shares for individual shareholders. If demand is strong, the same number of shares will be sold by Getin Holding, which currently holds an 85-percent stake," says Maurycy Kühn, a member of the management board at Noble Bank.

The bank's management is reluctant to officially reveal how much the company wants to raise from the Warsaw floor, but estimates suggest they are interested in taking around zł.150 million.

Part of the capital raised from the floor will be used to increase the number and value of loans offered by the bank. The rest of the IPO capital will help the bank maintain its solvency ratio and open new branches. Noble Bank already has five outlets, three are currently under construction and an additional two will be opened by the end of the year.

Currently the bank has over 1,000 customers, and last year the average customer invested roughly zł.350,000 in the products offered by the Noble Bank group. The management is expecting dynamic growth in terms of customer numbers because around half of Poland's most affluent residents do not use private banking, while the number of rich people is growing by 10-15 percent a year.

Noble Bank's 2007 revenues are expected to reach zł.170 million, compared to zł.97.3 million in 2006. Net profit is projected to almost double and reach zł.92 million, compared to zł.53.2 million last year.