The company Mall Group, which operates the online store Mall.cz, could enter the stock exchange. Investment groups PPF, EC Investments, and Rockaway are considering selling part of their shares in the company but do not plan to leave the company altogether. All shareholders have stated that they do not comment on the speculation.
“We do not comment on speculation in principle, and that is why we will not comment on this either,” Pavel Kalouš, head of Rockaway communications, said.
According to reports, these shareholders are considering the primary public offering (IPO) of the Mall Group, which would value the entire company at 1.5 to two billion euros (39.5 to 52.7 billion CZK). The US investment bank JP Morgan will probably organize the listing, sources say.
The process is still at an early stage, and shareholders may eventually decide on a different way of reducing shares in the Mall Group than selling shares in an IPO. However, if their choice is to offer shares on the stock exchange, some of the major stock exchanges in Western Europe, probably Amsterdam, are considered. However, they are also feeling the Prague Stock Exchange, and last year the Warsaw Stock Exchange was also discussed in this context.
“Mall Group’s planned plan to go public is excellent news for stock markets in general, but unfortunately not for the Prague Stock Exchange and domestic investors, who are often customers. Mall Group is a rather pro-profit group,” Capitalinked.com analyst Radim Dohnal said.
According to him, the company’s two principal shareholders have excellent access to debt and partner capital. “Their intention to go to the stock exchange for a minority can thus be read as an ‘exit’ or an attempt to obtain a price tag for their entire share,” he said.
The PPF Group owns the Mall Group e-shop group, entrepreneurs Daniel Křetínský with Patrik Tkáč and the Rockaway Capital investment group. In addition to Mall.cz, the group includes, the specialized stores CZC.cz, Košík.cz, Proděti, BigBrands and Rozbaleno. Revenues from Mall.cz stores were 7.2 billion crowns the year before. The entire Mall Group earned about CZK 18 billion at the time.