The number of securities accounts operated by the National Depository for Securities Poland (KDPW) Participants grew by 140 thousand in April 2010. The very high increase in the number of accounts was driven by the biggest IPO in the history of the Polish capital market: the offering of PZU – insurance company - worth more than PLN 8 billion (ca EUR 2 billion). Banks and brokerage houses operated 1,280,372 accounts at the end of April.
“The PZU IPO has sparked the most interest of local investors in many years. Even the IPOs of market giants like PKO BP and PGNiG did not attract as many investors to the capital market. The number of accounts operated by some brokers grew by no less than 100 percent, translating into dozens of thousands of new customers, ” said KDPW CEO Iwona Sroka.
The IPO of PKO BP in the autumn of 2004 was worth PLN 7.9 billion and raised the number of securities accounts operated by KDPW Participants by ca. 81 thousand. The PGNiG IPO in September 2005 worth PLN 2.6 billion raised the number of accounts by ca. 20 thousand.
“The PZU IPO has also brought another record of the depository-settlement system kdpw_stream, which on 7 May recorded historically the highest number of transactions: more than 358 thousand on the cash market, largely driven by the clearing of transactions in PZU shares. The previous kdpw_stream record was 287 thousand transactions cleared for the cash and futures markets on 24 March 2010,” said KDPW CEO Iwona Sroka.
The new system kdpw_stream went live on 3 August 2009. The implementation of the project significantly improved the effectiveness and safety of clearing and settlement of transactions on the capital market. The roll-out of kdpw_stream considerably increased the capacity of the system: the legacy system could process up to 300 thousand settlement transactions per day while the new system supports up to ca. 1 million transactions.
“The implementation of kdpw_stream last year opened new opportunities for the Polish capital market. In particular now, at the time of increased interest in the Warsaw Stock Exchange thanks to large IPOs and a high number of local and foreign investors, the functionalities of kdpw_stream ensure safe and effective settlement of all operations,” said Ms Sroka.
The biggest increase in the number of accounts in April was reported by DM PKO BP: its number of accounts grew by 31,586. DM BZ WBK ranked second: its number of accounts grew by 21,159 month on month in April. The third highest increase in the number of accounts was reported by DI BRE with 16,808 new accounts.
The highest percentage increase in the number of accounts in April was reported by DM BPS, up by 133 percent (from 587 to 1,370 accounts), followed by BM Alior Banku, up by 108 percent (from 13,336 to 27,793 accounts), and DM PKO BP, up by 40 percent (from 78,616 to 110,202 accounts).
The highest number of securities accounts operated in April was reported by DI BRE (218,340 accounts) followed by CDM Pekao SA (214,830 accounts) and DM Pekao SA (167,231 accounts at the end of April).