Polish e-commerce site Allegro began public trading on the Warsaw Stock Exchange and saw its share price shoot up by more than 50% almost immediately after trading. Allegra thus overshadowed the success of the Polish CD Projekt S.A. on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
The IPO of the well-known Polish auction website, which attracts 20 million visitors a month, is the largest entry on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in recent years. The company’s valuation during the primary offering is compared with the IPO of technology companies on the US NASDAQ.
The company’s shares started on the first trading day for 65 zlotys (CZK 394), while the price set for the start of trading was only 43 zlotys. The market immediately valued the company on the first day of public trading at a minimum of USD 17.6 billion (less than CZK 404 billion). Currently, the auction portal’s share price is around 68 zlotys, where, however, it encounters resistance to further growth.
The company has a 20-year history, and its current majority owners are the investment companies Cinven, Permira, and Mid Europa. In the past, Allegro also owned the Czech auction site Aukro, but in 2016 it was sold to Czech investors.