There is no getting around Amazon in online retail. Or? What seems to apply in Germany is different in Poland. A local company is the top dog there – and is now making a brilliant stock market debut.
The Polish Amazon competitor Allegro ignited a fireworks display on its stock market debut. The share rose on the Warsaw Stock Exchange by 51.2 percent. The share opened at 65 zlotys (the equivalent of 14.53 euros) after an issue price of 43 zlotys per share. Allegro was valued at 14.9 billion euros and rose to become the most valuable listed company in Poland in one fell swoop.
The largest IPO in Poland in years could mark a turning point for the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Until now, it has been difficult for the exchange operator to attract attractive candidates. Worldwide, the positive mood on the stock markets, high trading volumes and the tight time window in autumn are currently leading to a concentration of stock market debuts. In September, the British online retailer The Hut Group shone with its first IPO in London since the beginning of the Corona crisis and carried out the largest share issue since Royal Mail seven years ago.
Allegro, which was founded 20 years ago as an eBay competitor, is one of the best-known online retailers in Poland. The owners Cinven, Permira and Mid Europa acquired Allegro and the online portal Ceneo four years ago for 3.25 billion dollars from the South African investor Naspers. In total, Allegro, together with shareholders, sold shares worth the equivalent of around two billion euros in the IPO.
Amazon should plan its own offer
The newcomer to the stock market wants to use the proceeds from the share issue to reduce debt. There are no plans to pay a dividend. The platform now attracts 20 million visitors a month and has also benefited from the changed shopping behavior since the outbreak of the Corona crisis. Around the globe, more and more people are buying their goods online because they shy away from going into shops in view of hygiene and distance rules. In the first six months, Allegro's profit climbed 48 percent to just under 65 million euros.
Allegro boss François Nuyts is calm about the fact that Amazon reports could possibly launch its own offer in Poland within weeks: "There are many things that we do pretty well, if not even better than the competition," said he last week. He referred to the "unique" and "agile" business model of the company founded in 1999 in a garage as a Polish Ebay variant.
Because Allegro connects more than 100,000 retailers – many of them no bigger than corner shops – directly with around twelve million active buyers. According to Allegro, more than 90 percent of the products sold via the platform have never seen the inside of a warehouse or logistics center. Instead, they go straight from the seller to the customer – also via the nationwide network of lockers that allow consumers to pick up the goods when it suits them.
. (tagsToTranslate) Economy (t) Amazon (t) Poland (t) IPOs