Hectic May ahead of Prague’s bourse with a raft of listing

Hectic May ahead of Prague’s bourse with a raft of listing
The Prague bourse is going to have a hectic May with more than 30 foreign brands added to the exchange’s listings.
By bne IntelliNews May 15, 2018

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 companies 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 investors, 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.

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 diversification,” said Josef Kohout from Wood & Company.

As an attraction for people, the bourse is also preparing to list football clubs Juventus Turin and Borussia Dortmund. “It is an interesting experiment in how to attract more attention,” said the head of Patria Finance Tomas Jaros.

And on Monday, May 14, the share of the anti-virus software giant Avast Software will be also listed in Prague, in addition to its trading on the London Stock Exchange.

PSE is also preparing to trade start-ups Fillamentum (3D printers), Primoco UAV (unmanned aircrafts) and Prabos (shoemaking company) on May 14 in its 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.

 

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