Poland raises the price of the shares of the Warsaw Stock Exchange which will be sold in November

Poland has raised the price range for the IPO of the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE), Bloomberg reports, as quoted by Agerpres.

According to a document obtained by Bloomberg, the government will sell the shares of the Exchange for a price ranging between 26 and 46 zlotys, higher than the initially announced price of 43 zlotys.

Two weeks ago, the Polish treasury announced that the Polish government would put up for sale the majority stake in the Warsaw Stock Exchange, the largest stock Exchange in Central Europe.

The Polish treasury, which holds 98.8 of the WSE, plans to offer approximately 63.82% of the shares to institutional and individual investors. However, the Polish Treasury Minister, Aleksander Grad said that the government will keep a 35% stake in the WSE, meaning it will keep the strategic control over the Exchange.

Individual investors will be able to buy shares between Octonber 18th, October 27th, while the bookbuilding process for individual investors will take place between October 29th - November 3rd.

With 387 listed companies, worth 802 billion zlotys (205 billion Euros), the Warsaw Stock Exchange is the largest stock exchange in Central and Eastern Europe in terms of turnover and market capitalization, passing the Vienna Stock Exchange, according to figures from the Federation of European Securities Exchanges. Furthermore, the WSE is also a leader of the European IPO market in the second quarter of 2010, with seven IPOs worth 3.139 billion Euros, according to a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Warsaw Stock Exchange is the "crown jewel" of a privatization process by which the Polish government wants to raise 25 billion zlotys (6.36 billion Euros), with which it hopes to plug a public deficit which this year will reach 7% of the GDP, more than twice the 3% threshold allowed by the European Union.