WSE's floatation to put capital on international stage
This plan follows the lead of the Deutsche Boerse, which floated 100 percent of its shares in 2001 and claims to have since enjoyed the many fruits of its labor. The Frankfurt based exchange company now has more cash on hand to meet users' trading needs, as in the case of electricity trading, and has, acording to boerse spokesman Frank Hurtman, "become a more international company - more than 50 percent of our owners are from outside Germany".
Wiesław Rozłucki, head of the WSE, has forever been promoting the informal and formal pairing of Eastern Europe's most important exchange with its Western counterparts.
Internationalization would afford more investment opportunities for Poles abroad and foreigners in Poland. And Rozłucki has seen this as a way of fortifying the exchange at a time when low liquidity levels are one of the main complaints of local institutional investors.
Plans for mergers are indeed still in the works.
According to one Warsaw banker, should the initial public offering go ahead on the WSE as planned, the free-floating stock would facilitate Rozłucki's M&A aspirations. WSE executives would thus be able to orchestrate sales and investments more easily.
What's more, this vital element of the country's economy would finally be out of government hands, the banker noted.
Rozłucki was unavailable for comment at press time.
Piotr Chudzik, head of corporate finance at Deutsche Bank, is unsure of what specific implications a publicly traded WSE would have for his industry.
The investment-banking sector, for its part, has not had much success selling companies on the WSE for a litany of reasons that include Security and Exchange Commission listing requirements - and the economy.
But Chudzik said that he would support a listing as long as it promotes more equity listings in the country and independence, meaning that WSE executives' decisions would be market rather than politically driven.
This year Deputy Finance Minister Igor Chalupec stated the ministry's plan to float the WSE as a part of its "Agenda Warsaw City 2010" development project. Chalupec urged that the ministry of finance would like to work closely with the ministry of treasury to complete a deal by the year-end.
Bankers watching the potential deal are somewhat more optimistic on this privatization, despite the government's past empty promises.
"The government has generally had a hands-off approach with the WSE," a banker said. For this reason, the market expects that of all the government's larger sell-off schemes, WSE could be the one most likely to take place.
Wiesław Rozłucki, head of the WSE, has forever been promoting the informal and formal pairing of Eastern Europe's most important exchange with its Western counterparts.
Internationalization would afford more investment opportunities for Poles abroad and foreigners in Poland. And Rozłucki has seen this as a way of fortifying the exchange at a time when low liquidity levels are one of the main complaints of local institutional investors.
Plans for mergers are indeed still in the works.
According to one Warsaw banker, should the initial public offering go ahead on the WSE as planned, the free-floating stock would facilitate Rozłucki's M&A aspirations. WSE executives would thus be able to orchestrate sales and investments more easily.
What's more, this vital element of the country's economy would finally be out of government hands, the banker noted.
Rozłucki was unavailable for comment at press time.
Piotr Chudzik, head of corporate finance at Deutsche Bank, is unsure of what specific implications a publicly traded WSE would have for his industry.
The investment-banking sector, for its part, has not had much success selling companies on the WSE for a litany of reasons that include Security and Exchange Commission listing requirements - and the economy.
But Chudzik said that he would support a listing as long as it promotes more equity listings in the country and independence, meaning that WSE executives' decisions would be market rather than politically driven.
This year Deputy Finance Minister Igor Chalupec stated the ministry's plan to float the WSE as a part of its "Agenda Warsaw City 2010" development project. Chalupec urged that the ministry of finance would like to work closely with the ministry of treasury to complete a deal by the year-end.
Bankers watching the potential deal are somewhat more optimistic on this privatization, despite the government's past empty promises.
"The government has generally had a hands-off approach with the WSE," a banker said. For this reason, the market expects that of all the government's larger sell-off schemes, WSE could be the one most likely to take place.
