- 400 companies have been listed on NewConnect since the market opened
- The WSE consistently improves the quality of the alternative stock market and amends the ATS Rules
- The success and strong growth of NewConnect inspire other exchanges around the world
Less than five years since the NewConnect market opened, no less than 400 issuers from Poland and other countries have selected the WSE’s alternative stock market to raise growth capital. Forposta SA, a national distributor of advertising materials, was newly listed yesterday.
On the eve of the 400th new listing on the WSE’s alternative market, the authorities of the Warsaw Stock Exchange have announced major amendments to the Alternative Trading System Rules. As important part of its mission which involves initiatives improving the quality of the capital market, the WSE has taken steps to ensure even more transparency, safety and reliability of trading on NewConnect. The new regulations largely expand the reporting obligations of companies and the range of penalties for non-compliance. They also raise the requirements for Authorised Advisers in order to encourage them to share with investors their knowledge and opinions of the operation of listed companies; special reporting requirements are introduced for companies whose operation may arouse doubts from the perspective of the safety of trading. Furthermore, new segmentation will be put in place: in addition to the NC Lead segment, the Exchange will also classify companies as NC High Liquidity Risk (companies whose free-float capitalisation is less than PLN 1 million) and NC Super High Liquidity Risk (shares whose average price is less than PLN 0.10 or volatility is greater than 10 percent).
“The NewConnect market created almost five years ago has clearly made a success and today inspires other big exchanges around the world to develop similar trading platforms. However, this does not mean that we rest on the laurels or see no need to improve and enhance the quality of the market. Now that we have diagnosed the market based on compiled information, we see a need to implement another series of specific, precisely tailored and designed regulatory measures. The modifications aim to improve the safety of NewConnect by making it more transparent and preventing careless, dishonest or unreliable market participants from posing a risk to investors,” said WSE CEO Ludwik Sobolewski about the introduced changes.
The NewConnect market now lists 379 companies, including 7 foreign companies, whose capitalisation totals ca. PLN 8.8 billion. Since the market opened, 21 companies have migrated from the alternative stock market, including 17 companies which tapped the potential of NewConnect before moving to the WSE’s Main Market, one company which was acquired, 2 companies which declared bankruptcy and liquidation, and 1 company which was delisted.
Between the launch of NewConnect and the end of April 2012, the value of capital raised by listed companies was PLN 2.37 billion, including PLN 1.416 billion of IPOs and PLN 0.954 billion of SPOs.
Table 1. Number of new listings on NewConnect by year (WSE data): |
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2007 |
2008 |
2009 |
2010 |
2011 |
2012 |
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New listings |
24 |
61 |
26 |
86 |
172 |
31 |
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The biggest sector represented by companies currently listed on the NewConnect market is trade and services (28.76 percent). IT and technology companies represent 17.4 percent of all listings. Companies from the construction, media, financial services, and investment sectors also have a significant share.
Figure 1. Listed companies by sector, 22 May 2012 (number of companies, WSE data):
Although most of the time since NewConnect’s launch has been a difficult period of turbulences and uncertainties on the global financial markets, NewConnect has made a success and proved a major development on the Polish capital market.