- The Warsaw Stock Exchange wants to be the exchange of first choice for investors and issuers in Central and Eastern Europe
- The WSE Capital Group will become client-centric and tailor its offer to market needs
- The WSE Capital Group will focus on growth in those business segments where it has competitive advantages
- WSE’s ambition is to grow revenue by 7 percent CAGR by 2020. The Exchange Management Board expects EBITDA to double and the cost/income ratio to fall below 0.50 in that period.
“We develop an international capital hub - to be the exchange of first choice for investors and issuers in Central and Eastern Europe – this is the main goal of the updated Strategy GPW.2020,” said Paweł Tamborski, President of the Management Board of WSE.
The Warsaw Stock Exchange wants to achieve its strategic goals by becoming strongly client-centric. WSE will also strengthen its existing key business segments and grow based on the competences existing in the WSE Capital Group.
According to the strategy, the growth of the WSE Capital Group will be based on six pillars: a liquid equity market; a developed debt market; a competitive derivatives market; a commodity market attractive to investors; a comprehensive offer of information products for investors and issuers; and new business segments opened based on available competences. The Exchange wants to use the resources of the WSE Capital Group more effectively.
“We believe that we can grow our business mainly by making our products and services more attractive and by tailoring them to genuine needs of our clients,” said Paweł Tamborski, President of the Management Board of WSE.
The strategy of the WSE Capital Group takes into account the expected regulatory changes on the European financial market. It has also been brought in line with the standing of the Capital Group, market trends, and clients’ expectations.
“We have consulted our clients and partners on the assumptions for the strategy. Their comments provided valuable input on the direction of growth of the WSE Capital Group necessary to actively support the development of Poland’s capital market,” said Grzegorz Zawada, Vice-President of the Management Board for WSE Strategy and Development.
In order to develop the equity market, the strategy envisages initiatives including active acquisition of new issuers, investors, and exchange members; simplification of procedures; promotion of short selling and securities lending; liquidity activation programmes; and strengthening of NewConnect as a source of new listings for the Main Market.
WSE plans to improve the attractiveness of the debt market, among others, by simplifying the Catalyst market structure and encouraging banks to become more active on the market.
“We expect that the WSE Main Market will list around 550 issuers in 2020. Our efforts will focus on the acquisition of attractive Polish and foreign companies, mainly from our region. We also expect the Catalyst market to list no less than a thousand issues of non-Treasury bonds in six years’ time,” said Mirosław Szczepański, Vice-President of the WSE Management Board for Operations.
In line with clients’ expectations, the Exchange is also planning to develop the derivatives market including products based on bonds, interest rates, electricity and natural gas, as well as other underlying instruments.
The WSE Capital Group will develop the commodity market, including the gas segment, by unlocking the potential of energy companies and financial investors. The Exchange wants to attract active financial investors to other segments of the market.
Another pillar of the WSE Capital Group’s strategy is a comprehensive offer of information services derived from data originating from a number of sources. The Exchange will also offer index products tailored to investors’ needs.
“We need to be cost-effective in order to compete for clients successfully. We are planning initiatives which will reduce the WSE Capital Group’s cost base by ca. PLN 20 million in the next three years,” said Karol Półtorak, Vice-President of the Management Board for Finance. “It is our target to grow the revenue by 7 percent CAGR in the next six years, to double the EBITDA, and to bring the cost/income ratio below 0.50,” added Karol Półtorak.
While focusing on business, the Exchange wants to further support the development of the capital market and improve its quality, among others, through education and by initiating legislative amendments. In order to provide market participants with the highest standards and safety of trading, WSE will also invest in state-of-the-art technologies.
“The Exchange has put in place a trading system whose parameters ensure efficiency, effectiveness, and safety of trading at the highest level globally. State-of-the-art IT is the basis of further development of our product offer in line with market needs,” said Dariusz Kułakowski, Vice-President of the Management Board for Information & Technology.