WSE's growth recipe

As of April next year the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) will launch an alternative trading platform for higher-risk companies in the early phase of their development. Similar to the London-based AIM, WSE's alternative market will be cheaper and less regulated. According to Ludwik Sobolewski, it will be a good fund-raising platform for smaller enterprises.

"We want to create an unregulated market with more liberal requirements. It might have a lower liquidity, but it will provide capital to the smaller companies that often struggle to obtain a bank loan," Sobolewski said.

"We've done our reconnaissance and we know that demand for such a market exists. Also, venture capital funds are willing to participate in its creation," he added.

The launch of AIM in 1995 was a great success for the London Stock Exchange. Last year alone it saw the debuts of 350 companies, 100 of which were foreign. Also three Ukrainian companies chose to be listed on AIM, while only Astarta Kiev opted for the geographically closer Warsaw bourse.

Sobolewski is very keen to attract foreign enterprises to the WSE. To that end, the bourse will establish a PR company to position the WSE internationally.

"One of the main barriers to more foreign debuts on our bourse is that entrepreneurs abroad, e.g. in Ukraine, don't know anything about the WSE. We need to launch an intensive marketing campaign," Sobolewski stressed.

Lithuania, Ukraine, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania were singled out as markets of interest, so one can expect the strongest marketing campaign to be launched in the region. This year the WSE will see the debut of Czech utility company CEZ and Slovakian Asseco, but Sobolewski believes there is much more to come.

"We should see 15 more debuts by the end of this year, so we should near the 2004 record when 36 companies debuted on the bourse," he said.