WSE gets tough with New Connect
The Warsaw Stock Exchange is tightening the screws on its often-unruly younger sibling, the New Connect alternative market for small companies, by halting trading in 14 companies that failed to file their quarterly reports on time.
The earliest the 14 can return to the trading floor is Thursday – if they get their paperwork in no later than the end of Tuesday. Continue reading »
Algorithmic trading comes to Warsaw
A quiet day on the Warsaw Stock Exchange on Tuesday as it shut its doors to digest the results of its first day of a new trading system supplied by the NYSE.
The Universal Trading Platform (UTP) dramatically ramps up the WSE’s ability to trade shares – it allows for as many as 20,000 transactions a second, while the old system, called Warset, topped out at about 850 orders a second. Continue reading »
Warsaw-Vienna stock exchanges: flirting, not fighting
The old adage about getting further with honey than with vinegar holds true for flies, and looks to be just as valid for stock exchanges, as Warsaw’s exchange begins to flirt with its long-time rival in Vienna.
Bloomberg broke the news on Tuesday that the two were in talks. It looks as though discussions are still very preliminary, but the fact that they are talking and not hissing at each other is a big change – largely due to a change at the top of the WSE. Continue reading »
Warsaw listing for doorstep lender
The turbulent global economy seems not to be harming the prospects of International Personal Finance, a small cash loan company with operations across central Europe and Mexico, which expects double digit revenue growth this year.
Gerard Ryan, the company’s CEO, talked to beyondbrics on Wednesday, on the day the company launched a secondary listing on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, marking Poland’s status as IPF’s largest market, with 820,000 customers. Continue reading »
Polish property IPO builds interest
Poland’s real estate sector has been a little lacklustre in recent years, but that has not not dissuaded investors from taking a flyer on PHN, a government controlled property holding which had its IPO on the Warsaw Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
Shares were up by 7.4 per cent to 23.62 zlotys ($7.67) on the WSE, valuing the company at just over 1bn zlotys. Continue reading »
New man at the WSE: back to basics
Adam Maciejewski, the new head of the Warsaw Stock Exchange (pictured), is promising to be a much lower key executive than his predecessor – probably a good thing after Ludwik Sobolewski was fired this week after being accused of trying to solicit funds from listed companies to invest in a movie starring his girlfriend.
Although he has been involved with the WSE since 1994, the quick choice of Maciejewski to replace Sobolewski was a bit of a surprise – though the fact that an insider and not a politician got the job was reassuring for market participants. Continue reading »
Warsaw bourse sacks CEO
The Warsaw Stock Exchange on Thursday dismissed its high-profile chief executive, Ludwik Sobolewski, according to Polish media reports.
He was suspended last month following a probe into claims he allegedly sought funds from listed companies for a film involving his girlfriend and entitled “Pharoah’s Curse”. Acting CEO Adam Maciejewski takes over. Continue reading »
Warsaw SE: shopping centre IPO pop masks liquidity problems
At first glance, Friday’s stock market launch of Czerwona Torebka – a Polish shopping centre operator – was good news, with the stock jumping by more than 50 per cent on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
But a closer looks reveals a more troubling story which shows some of the problems that have been besetting the WSE this year. Continue reading »
Warsaw Stock Exchange chief suspended
Ludwik Sobolewski (left), head of the Warsaw Stock Exchange since 2006, was suspended late Friday “for compelling reasons” by a hurriedly convened management board meeting.
The exchange’s brief statement on the suspension did not give a reason for the decision, but the Polish press reports that Sobolewski had been linked to a controversy over the financing of a film about the stock exchange. Continue reading »
Warsaw aims for $260m from PAK sale
The Polish government is going ahead with the largest initial public offering on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in the last year, the sale of its 50 per cent stake in the country’s fifth-largest power producer ZE PAK, according to a prospectus released on Wednesday.
PAK’s shares will be valued at a maximum 33 zlotys ($10.44) each, which will earn the treasury as much as 858m zlotys ($260m), a large boost as it seeks to meet its target of selling 10bn zlotys in state assets this year. So far this year the ministry has sold 8.1bn zlotys in assets. Continue reading »
Poland: Eurocash founder sells stock, raising questions about prospects
When a company’s founder, manager and leading shareholder decides to sell a big chunk of shares, smaller fry head for the exits – which is what happened on Wednesday on the Warsaw Stock Exchange after Luiz Amaral surprised the market with a decision to sell a 7 per cent stake in Eurocash, Poland’s second largest distributor of fast-moving consumer goods. Continue reading »
Warsaw exchange: pushing for a bigger regional role
The Warsaw Stock Exchange has long been hungry to play a role beyond just Poland – the peripatetic chief executive Ludwik Sobolewski has illustrated that in his attempts pull in new listings from across the region. Now the exchange is making that formal by launching a new WIG-CEE index.
The index can include companies from a country with at least two listings on the WSE as long as they come from different sectors. The 25-company list includes firms from the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Hungary, Estonia, Bulgaria and Lithuania. Continue reading »
CEE IPOs: lots of risk, little return
Facebook friends watching their investment shrivel after the company’s disappointing initial public offering can be glad of one thing – at least they didn’t jump on an IPO offered by the Prague Stock Exchange. Continue reading »
Guest post: Go east, again
Philippe Carré of SunGard surveys exchange consolidation in central and eastern Europe
It is impossible to discuss the financial markets of central and eastern Europe without highlighting the accomplishments of the Warsaw Stock Exchange. The recent adrenaline rush among the CEE’s other exchanges, desperate to transform themselves into serious players, can only be understood in the context of the WSE’s success in positioning itself as a regional champion. Continue reading »
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