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Central Europe
May 18, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 12
Hectic May ahead of Prague’s bourse with a raft of listings
bne IntelliNews
The Prague bourse is going to have a hectic May with the trading of young companies and the entry of more than 30 foreign brands to the exchange’s listings.
The Prague bourse is trying to attract new com- panies and raise its profile. In less than two weeks 33 foreign companies with a connection to the Czech economy should enter the Prague Stock Exchange (PSE).
The Czech bourse is keen to recovery from the last not-so-successful year when the total market capitalisation dropped by CZK29bn ($1.36bn) year- on-year to CZK139bn.
Many of the companies entering will be dual- listed, so it creates another opportunity for inves- tors, who are not used to trading shares abroad. “Those who are used to buying shares of Apple
in the US, won’t trade them in Prague,” said J&T Bank analyst Milan Vanicek for the business daily E15 on May 10.
The brands waiting to be traded in Prague are well-known and include French bank Société Générale, Polish oil company PKN Orlen, German carmaker Volkswagen, beer maker Heineken, food conglomerate Nestlé and carmaker Volvo.
“Every name will function as a market maker and will thus support liquidity, so trading should be full-fledged alternative to their parent markets,” said the head of PSE Petr Koblic.
The Prague bourse is going to have a hectic May with more than 30 foreign brands added to the exchange’s listings.
Investors can also buy Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), which provide the possibility to invest into different classes of assets. Through one fund, the investors can get a portfolio of companies listed in S&P 500. “It will provide a great diversi- fication,” said Josef Kohout from Wood & Com- pany.
As an attraction for people, the bourse is also preparing to list football clubs Juventus Turin and Borussia Dortmund. “It is an interesting ex- periment in how to attract more attention,” said the head of Patria Finance Tomas Jaros.
As of Monday, May 14, the shares of the anti- virus software giant Avast Software were also listed in Prague, in addition to its trading on the London Stock Exchange.
The same date saw the launch of trading in start-ups Fillamentum (3D printers), Primoco UAV (unmanned aircrafts) and Prabos (shoemak- ing company) on the START market, a specialised platform for smaller companies.
The market has investors interested. One of the richest Czechs Ondrej Tomek has established the web portal centrum.cz. He plans to invest up to CZK100mn into Start. “It is one way how to diversify portfolio and put money into young and growing companies,” Tomek told the Czech newspaper Hospodarske Noviny.